President Gustavo Petro speaks again about the constituent assembly and announces that he will support the congressional lists that champion that proposal.

President Gustavo Petro once again spoke about his proposal for a constituent assembly after his administration. In a lengthy tweet, he asserted that it is the only way to implement the changes he proposed during his administration, which Congress failed to address. He also took the opportunity to once again criticize the system for electing Constitutional Court justices, clearly referring to his defeat in the election of Carlos Camargo.

“With a Congress like the one the people elected in 2022, more advanced reforms aren't possible. The labor and pension reforms were enough, and I think they were a great success,” Petro declared, adding: “But the clientelist nature of Congress's election limits its ability to take on more democratic challenges.”

The president criticized the slow progress of the health care reform and mentioned the selection of Camargo as the new Constitutional Court justice. "The Senate elected a justice to the court who will help undo what the House of Representatives achieved on the pension reform. The presiding judge is still stalling the pension reform. He hopes the new justice will help him," he said.

The president began criticizing the election of magistrates by Congress, a system under which he appointed two of his close associates: former legal secretary to the Presidency Vladimir Fernández and lawyer Héctor Carvajal. This mechanism is supposedly proof that a constituent assembly is needed to reform it.

Under that logic, he said: "Undoubtedly, the way a judge is elected, which creates a trail of clientelism in his later years to reach that position, demonstrates the relevance of both social reforms and reforming the justice system to make it powerful rather than clientelist. For that, constituent reform is necessary."

Gustavo Petro asserted that the only way to continue building a social state based on the rule of law is through a constituent assembly. In this regard, he warned that his proposal has always been dismissed for being associated with reelection, but that this is not his intention.

“Every time I talk about the necessary constituent assembly, they bring up reelection. Well, there's no time for reelection, so I bring it up again,” he declared. According to the President, this constituent assembly should focus on “social reforms, adaptation to climate change, guaranteeing people's rights, and justice reform to end impunity and ensure truth and restoration for victims.”

Petro noted that this process must be pursued through a collection of signatures and with the help of the new Congress. It was at this point that he expressed his support for lists that include this proposal.

"Let the proposed list be a pro-constituent list and make the people's order a reality with their signatures. They ask me, who do I support? I support a pro-constituent list for Congress and the House of Representatives," he concluded. Regarding this last point, there are doubts about whether this is not improper political participation, as it directly addresses support for the upcoming elections.

Juan Sebastian Lombo Delgado