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By Álvaro Grajales *
After almost four years of the Duque administration, Colombians are ready to elect their new president. Unfortunately, the new political scenario is not good.
The Centro Democrático, the governing party, has suffered a tremendous defeat in the legislative elections. This is perhaps the result of a government that got itself elected with the banners of the right but governed the country with an ideology of the left.
This disaster, in the minds of Colombians, is the fault of the right. That is the reason that explains the defeat of the right-wing political parties and the rebirth of the extreme left in a country that suffered the violence created by the communist/Marxist guerrillas. Despite the fact that Duque implemented several leftist policies such as universal basic income, raising taxes, increasing public spending, etc., which, by the way, today have the country with skyrocketing inflation.
All these leftist policies implemented by a “right-wing” administration were not enough for the far left. The left-wing parties implemented a furious opposition to Duque’s government, which, instead of responding with good policies, preferred to surrender and give in to the extreme left-wing parties.
This empowered the far left represented by Gustavo Petro, a former terrorist of the communist group M-19. Petro leads the polls for president, and his main opponent is the former mayor of the city of Medellín, Federico Gutiérrez.
The problem is that Gutiérrez is using the same strategy as Duque, appeasing the left to try to get centrist voters, a situation that will affect his aspiration to the presidency and condemn Colombia to four years of poverty, inflation, regulations and expropriations.
Álvaro Grajales is a Colombian lawyer with a focus on Economic Analysis of Law.
