The division and the Government of Duque mark the electoral decline of Uribismo

After the legislative elections on Sunday, the right-wing Democratic Center party, created by former president Álvaro Uribe, ceased to be the main political force in Colombia and today its members are seeking to reinvent themselves to stop what they call threats to democracy, solve internal divisions and raise the bad image of their leader.

The right-wing party, of which the president is also a member Ivan Dukehad the two congressmen with the most votes in the elections, Miguel Uribe and Maria Fernanda Cabaland has so far won 14 seats in the Senate and 16 in the House of Representatives.

Despite these results, Uribismo lost five seats in the Upper House and sixteen in the Lower House, but still remained one of the four largest forces in the country behind the leftist Historical Pact and the traditional Liberal and Conservative parties.

Analyst and university professor Sandra Bordawho aspired to the Senate for the New Liberalism party, assured that “The prognosis that many people had was that the collection account was going to be passed on to the government party, to the Democratic Center” by the social outbreak of last year, but that did not happen in the expected magnitude.

“It did not go so badly for them either, considering that it was an open list and that for the first time it was not going to be headed by Uribe”added the teacher.

The Democratic Center was created in 2013 and its list closed to the Senate was led by Uribe, who led his party to be the second largest force in the Senate in 2014, only behind the Party of the U, which was led by the then President Juan Manuel Santos.

Four years later, Uribismo presented an open list whose head was the former president, who received 891,964 and continues to be, to this day, the congressman with the largest number of votes in the history of Colombia.

Uribe’s messes

Analyzing the reasons for the decline of the Democratic Center in the elections, Uribe said that he is primarily responsible for the legal troubles he has and that have affected his reputation.

“We have to be very delicate at this moment in the democratic life of the country. We reduced many seats, the main person responsible is me, due to my affectation to the reputation “said the former president.

Uribe is currently immersed in a case of procedural fraud and bribery of witnesses that follows the Justice and for which he said that he even had to cancel campaign events in the regions to attend the hearings.

In some places, the former president (2002-2010) was unable to conclude his events because he was greeted with boos by people who rejected him, in addition, because of things that happened during his government, such as the “false positives”, as the executions of civilians at the hands of soldiers who later presented them as guerrillas killed in combat are known.

That is why his speech, now, is personal and cries out for “defending democracy” before him “very serious problem” which, he says, would mean the choice of the leftist Gustavo Petro as president of Colombia.

Duque’s government, a burden

Former President Uribe also called for the creation of a political transition committee within the party that is made up of elected senators Miguel Uribe Turbay, Maria Fernanda Cabal, Alirio Barrera and Paloma Valenciaas well as Oscar Dario Perezwho won a seat for the House of Representatives by the department of Antioch.

The idea is to promote a game again “that was born creating healthy controversies for Colombia” and “cannot abandon the disruptive path”according to Uribe.

However, Cabal, who is part of the most radical wing of the party and became the most voted woman in the history of the legislative elections on Sunday, criticized President Duque during the meeting, whom he said turned out to represent other interests of the opponents. Democratic Center politicians.

“We chose a government and we were not a government party,” said the congresswoman, who added that Uribe has been “very prudent in avoiding involving the government, but the consequences are clear since the regional elections.”. “Here we do not enjoy being a government party, here we governed with adversaries”he added.

According to an Invamer survey published on February 17, 73% of Colombians disapprove of the way President Duque is running the country.

That is why Senator Valencia, another of the most recognized figures of the Democratic Center, wondered during the meeting what happened during this Government with the party that stopped “falling in love with Colombians”.

The division, moreover, had been going on since before the legislative elections, since even The Duke himself confirmed days before the voting that he was going to vote in the presidential consultation of the right-wing coalition Equipo por Colombia, of which the Uribe presidential candidate, Óscar Iván Zuluaga, was not a part.

Division of support in the presidential

After the elections on Sunday, the presidential candidate of the Democratic Center withdrew from his aspiration and announced his personal support for the Team for Colombia candidate, the former mayor of Medellín Federico Gutiérrez, because he considers that “only united” can save “democracy and freedom”.

However, the party has not yet made a clear decision because although Gutiérrez has carried the ballast of “to be Uribe’s candidate” without the president having given public support, there are sectors of the Democratic Center who fear that “Fico” Be a “Duke 2.0″.

In the midst of these internal discussions, Uribe’s call is clear and he reiterated it this Thursday: “When the family has problems, they should consult their children. We are not for parties, our vote was greatly reduced.

“Let us unite by appealing to the base. Neither disintegrate the Democratic Center nor hinder to build “concluded the former president, who, despite the internal divisions of the party, has the full support of all its members.