Ruling out any candidacy, Camilo Escalona, former senator and current general secretary of the Socialist Party (PS), expressed his apprehensions with the Commission of Experts and the Technical Admissibility Committee, two of the three bodies of the new constituent process. Both will be appointed by Congress and, while the first will prepare a draft that will be delivered to the Constitutional Council —elected by the citizens—, the second will review the norms approved in the two previous instances.
“I think we have to warn that the use of the powers of the Expert Commission beyond what is prudent can affect the legitimacy of the result,” said the historic militant of the PS, in conversation with The Mercury. In his opinion, “the Expert Commission can play a great role due to its prudence and can generate a great disaster if it takes the path of imprudence.”
Escalona warns the same, regarding the Admissibility Technical Committee. “If you get the complex of becoming some kind of last word, interpretive of what is done or not done, it can also cause a derailment of this train,” she said.
Asked if he shares the idea that if this new constituent process fails, the attempts will come to an end and the current Magna Carta will remain in force, the socialist leader maintained that “that is the reason why we signed the agreement. It cannot fail, but nobody has than blackmail with that”.
“Because it fails for us but also for the right; no one can put the interlocutor in an irreversible situation because the impact of the avalanche that occurs can crush us all later,” added who was also president of the Senate (2012-2013).
For Camilo Escalona, ”the impact that occurs when institutional crises get out of control cannot be calculated.” Therefore, “all actors must have the responsibility that circumstances demand of us.”
Faced with the possibility of integrating one of the bodies of the constituent process, the former parliamentarian said that he had thought for a while that he would not be a candidate. “I have thought about it since the previous process because people were fed the conviction that people with experience were no longer useful, and people became convinced of that. So this is the same as the candidacies for national prosecutor. Submitting to derision public because one wants to collaborate with the Constitutional Council is not pleasant”.
In any case, Escalona affirmed that he was not completely satisfied with the agreement for the new constituent process, but that his sector had no alternative. Despite this, he rejected the possibility of changing the agreement. “It is not possible to unilaterally modify the commitment, there is no way. In other words, there are going to be things that will have to be sought by common agreement (…) That is, what is best for the process and that all parties agree on is fine , but it is not possible by the sole will of one of the actors to modify what is already signed”, he commented to the morning paper.
