He President Gustavo Petro will install this Saturday the new session of the Congress of the Republic, in which your Government will present New health, justice and tax reform projectsamong other initiatives that will be the basis for facing the second half of his term, which begins on August 7.
Petro will preside over the military parade on a platform in the morning. July 20thColombian Independence Day, and in the afternoon, in the Capitol, the ordinary sessions of Congress will be installed, which in the last legislature sank several of its bills.
(You may be interested in: Reactivation and reforms: Government priorities in the new legislative period).
The president, who is halfway through his term with his popularity on the decline due to a lack of results, the deterioration of public order and corruption problems involving members of his government, He will give a summary of the first two years of his administration in terms of social justice, environmental justice and total peace in Congress, according to his office..
Petro has repeatedly proposed a national agreement to carry out the changes promised in his campaign, but has encountered resistance from various sectors to his proposals because they consider that, as in the case of the health reforminstead of correcting faults and improving the current system, destroy the existing.
Gustavo Petro
Milton Diaz / Portfolio
The shadow of the constituent assembly
He has even suggested calling a constituent assembly to change the Magna Carta of 1991if the people so request, he said, a possibility that he could even announce in his speech tomorrow.
(You may be interested in: The millions that the Dian has generated in 2024 with the auctions it has carried out).
“A national agreement necessarily involves ethical respect for those who think differently; for example, those who oppose the proposal for a constituent assembly with different arguments.“, he said Alejandro Gaviria, who was his first Minister of Education and today is one of its most implacable opponents.
On July 11, speaking before the UN Security Council in New YorkPetro said he will present to Congress a shock plan to accelerate the implementation of the peace agreement signed in 2016 with the FARC guerrillas and total peace, one of the flags of his Government.
The plan includes fiscal changes to finance peace programs, release coca-producing peasants, speed up agrarian reform, create a “a single system of truth, justice, reparation and reconciliation for all actors in the conflict” and the Seven-year extension of the implementation period of the agreement with the FARCinitially agreed for 15 years.
(Further: New legislature: what awaits Congress and the Government?).
Congress of the republic
Cesar Melgarejo / THE TIME
Difficult relationships
Petro, however, will not have an easy time reaching agreements in Congress, where there are no majorities and the Historic Pact, the Government coalition, has shown cracks in some decisions.
(Besides: The National Savings Fund is under the scrutiny of the Comptroller’s Office, why?).
The first hurdle will be this Saturday When the Senate and the House elect their boards of directorswhose composition will determine the daily legislative agenda, which is crucial for the processing of bills.
In the Senate, everything indicates that the president will be the conservative Efrain Cepeda Sarabiawhile in the House of Representatives there is a dispute between the president’s allies and opponents to keep that position.
EFE
