Sergio Fajardo commented on the beginnings of Dignity and Commitment, the party that he wants to consolidate together with Jorge Enrique Robledo; He pointed out that it does not make any sense that Roy Barreras represents the change that Colombia needs, criticized the gaps in the Government in terms of what he says and does not comply and highlighted the good of this administration
THE NEW CENTURY: Let’s start with what is related to the alliance with Jorge Enrique Robledo. What is the goal of that alliance?
SERGIO FAJARDO: Since 2017 we have been working directly with Jorge Robledo and the people who became the Dignity party, headed by Robledo, and we in Compromiso Ciudadano. We have worked together in the 2018, 2019 and 2022 elections. And in that work, during all these years, we have built something that is very scarce in politics in Colombia, which is called trust; This means that we learned to respect each other, to recognize each other, to understand and know how to deal with the differences that we have had, have and will have. But in this time that we have worked together, transparency, honesty and the word have been fundamental in our work and have become the building of trust. So, after all, we decided to come together to work together, to build a new party, to collect our experiences in the instances in which we have been. In the Senate, for example, Jorge Robledo, recognized as the best senator for years by his own colleagues, and I was chosen with my work team in the Mayor’s Office and in the Governor’s Office as the best in Colombia. So, we are putting together our experiences, and pointing out something that is also important: we come from alternative paths.
ENS: Are they coming together to look for what exactly in the October elections? What are they pointing at?
SF: The first thing we have to do in our project is a new party, Dignity and Commitment, for 2023, 2026, 2030, and “per saecula saeculorum”, to participate in politics, to get closer to power, to bring our ideas, our proposals, to the people with whom we share, so that they are a fundamental part of the transformation of our country. So we are going to participate in elections, we are going to call for many people to participate, who today may not be in Dignity or in Citizen Commitment, but invite them to give a different face to politics, to materialize the change in territorial elections. For example, about having serious proposals to transform cities, municipalities, departments, the activity of councilors, deputies, mayors, in short, throughout the territory. That there be participation in politics, that we make a different policy, that we present proposals so that we break with something that we have seen in recent times, the “anything goes” in order to win the elections.
ENS: ¿Would it be a match with two co-directors? Would you two be the heads?
SF: No. We certainly play a leadership role. There is also Jénnifer Pedraza, who is a congresswoman, and there are a lot of people scattered throughout Colombia. But it is not the party of Robledo and Fajardo in charge, but in fact we have a co-chairmanship where Juan Manuel Ospina is, who came from Dignidad, and a person to whom I want to draw attention, whose name is Sara Moreno, who comes from Compromiso Ciudadano , a young, intelligent, prepared woman from Cali, who represents that new politics that we want, those new faces. A very capable woman. In these elections the purpose is to accompany many people who have worked for us many years ago.
ENS: Roy Barreras is already consolidated as one of the presidential candidates for 2026. What is your opinion regarding the president of Congress?
SF: His figure represents, as he himself said, santismo. Barreras has been a vargasllerista, an uribista, a santista, a petrista, he has been everything. He announces a party and look at the candidates he is presenting. Without a doubt, he is a skilled person, but I don’t think he represents change in Colombia in any way.
petro government
ENS: What are the biggest flaws that you see in the Petro government?
SF: PLittle by little we are seeing the distance and the difference between speaking out, promising as a candidate, continuing in that same spirit as president, and the ability to turn that into tangible and visible actions that truly change the lives of citizens. The abyss is gigantic and bigger every day and that is gradually leading to collective frustration. When I heard that there were several ministers who had been appointed by reading a trill from the President of the Republic or because their private secretary calls them to tell them that if they want to be ministers, we are in a very serious problem, because that means that the head does not speak with the people he is going to appoint, he has not sat down with them to see how he is going to constitute his work and that in itself, for me, is the seed that is being seen more and more every day in the way in which he is governing .
ENS: You have said that many of the president’s announcements have remained on the air…
SF: When the president passionately announced on December 31 that there was a bilateral ceasefire with the criminal groups with whom they want to negotiate for total peace, we later discovered that no group knew, that no one had reached any kind of agreement, that the public forces had no idea about that, because that is a reflection of a form of a chain that thinks, dreams, wants things to happen, but lacks rigor and seriousness. What happened, of course, it happens quickly and dirt is thrown at it, but that has very big effects, for example, on the structure of peace that you want to build, I agree that you need to build peace, but I have serious concerns about the way it is being done.
Then we see ads about which we have no idea what is going on with them. For example, how is the university that was announced to be built in Catatumbo doing? Does anyone know how the process of one hundred thousand young people who were going to be chosen to give a million pesos to each one is going? How is the process going where it was announced that all people who have a doctorate who wanted to work with the Colombian government register to work, how many are hired, where are they hired? The president said: mayors and governors, prepare the lots that we are going to carry out works, how many works have been designed, where are they being designed? Things are said and you don’t have the ability to turn them into reality.
ENS: You have also criticized the departure of some government officials.
SF: Se listen that the Vice Minister of Mines and Energy resigns because she is dissatisfied with the way everything is being handled there and she was the one with the experience and technical knowledge, appointed by the National Government to be there. The Vice Minister of Labor who had been brought in in January, rigorous in dealing with all these issues of labor reform, is also resigning. If you collect everything that appears, such as rumors about the Foreign Ministry, if you start to look at the way in which the health reform has been processed, the people who have participated, the chaos we are in, it is a way of explaining that between what was promised, what is said every day and what is done there is a very large abyss, there is lack of coordination, there is no solid government structure that allows things to be done and that is the worst thing that can happen to a government.
As for the reforms, it is a very big mess, elements are mixed, things do not appear clearly and transparently, so the discussions are very difficult, the only one we know about is health and that is a gigantic mess. hhere are a number of fundamental questions that must be addressed in the Congress of the Republic.
ENS: What have you found positive within the Government?
SF: CAs a positive, the tax reform. I believe that the work of Minister José Antonio Ocampo has been very important for Colombia, that he has that capacity, that knowledge, that experience, and it has been very beneficial for the government of President Petro.
The Minister of Commerce seems to me to be a serious person. And there may be more prominent ministers, I don’t want to be unfair.