A “bittersweet” triumph for the Colombian left

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It is the first time that the left wins a presidential election in Colombia, but the victory did not help it. the candidate Gustavo Petro to declare himself the winner in the first roundand you will have to face in the ballot with his worst option, the populist Rodolfo Hernández, who was left out. second.

In the historic Hotel Tequendama in Bogotá, where Petro had summoned his ranks, congressmen from his party and people closest to him, the disappointment was palpable, despite The presenters and those who took the microphone talked about a “great feeling of victory.” strong>the applause while the results were announced were barely audible or seconded, as the former mayor of the city of Bucaramanga Rodolfo Hernández was seen rising in the votes and staying in second position. p>

The more than 8.5 million votes obtained by the Gustavo Petro-Francia Márquez formula, despite being the most supported, was the lowest, “most prudent” bet. , from the campaign of the former mayor of Bogotá; and, despite his intention to join forces since he was declared a candidate on March 13, he did not manage to join forces. the votes he needed to win in the first round nor the ones he expected.

Petro was expected to be able to group the social discontent that was experienced He was in the streets last year, added to more centrist forces that he has integrated into his campaign, but the reality is that he has barely 500,000 votes more than what he managed to achieve. in the second round of 2018 against the current president, Iván Duque.

However, those around him say it is encouraging: “It is the first time that in a first round the left , progressive sectors triumphed,” Senator Iván Cepeda, re-elected by the Historical Pact, told Efe.

FRONTAL ATTACK ON POPULISM

It is a “resounding victory for Gustavo Petro that also implies a desire for change by the Colombian State, but that is insufficient to have won in the first round and generates a complex scenario for the second round” , considered Juan Carlos Monedero, one of the founders of the Spanish left-wing party Podemos, who was accompanying the campaign, told Efe.

Against the engineer and businessman Rodolfo Hernández, the Petro campaign bets on his proposals in the face of the populist slogans of fighting corruption that he wields and of “kicking out corrupt politicians.” /p>

“The engineer has a very superficial speech,” says Cepeda, a senator from the leftist Democratic Pole. And it is, according to Petro’s followers, “Plan B” of uribismo.

Monedero says he is “an “insider” who presents himself as an ‘outsider’, that Creole Trump that is Rodolfo Hernández is capable of capturing a vote that Uribismo would never capture” and it remains to be seen how the second round regroups.

THE DEFEAT OF URIBISM

However, what the followers seem to agree on is that the loser of the day has been the uribismo, the right-wing current founded by former president Álvaro Uribe who, being the only one who has managed to win two elections in the first round , is experiencing its worst moment of popularity and has maintained a notable background for the first time in an electoral campaign.

“We have won and we are going with everything in the second round”, says Cepeda, one of Petro’s staunchest supporters and who has Uribe between the ropes in court.

“Uribe has been defeated politically and we see that this is a very clear signal and now we go to convince the voters who did not vote for us in this first round and win the possibility of a historic change”, he added.

Senator María Fernanda Cabal, who was the most voted woman on March 13 and one of the strong pillars of Uribismo, has already said that “Rodolfo’s victory is the victory against the establishment”, in implicit support.

Hernandez’s 5.9 million votesis expected to be joined by many of the votes of the third party in the polls, the right-wing Federico “Fico” Gutiérrez, who has been left at the gates of the second round with just over 5 million supporters.

These three weeks, until the second round on June 19, are fundamental for Let’s see if Petro is capable of adding more forces and support and surpassing the almost 11 million that its two main rivals bring together and face “everyone against Petro.” expected.