President Gustavo Petro de la Casa de Nariño

From the balcony of Narino Palaceand with his wife, Vernónica Alcocer, and his youngest daughter, Antonella, President Gustavo Petro addressed those who came to attend the Parade as a sign of support for the reforms that his government plans to carry out and insisted that they be approved “if the people want them”.

Supporters of Colombian President Gustavo Petro react as they gather on the day of his public statement on health system reform, in Bogota, Colombia February 14, 2023. REUTERS/Nathalia Angarita

Gustavo Petro is fired as a “rockstar” after his speech at the Casa de Nariño

The event host asked attendees to turn on their cellphone lights and chant the president’s name to return to the balcony

His speech was given as a way to wrap up the day of protests he called for in defense of the executive branch’s legislative agenda in the Congressdespite the fact that only the health reform is known, the text of which was tabled only on February 13.

“The reforms we are proposing, which are beginning to be discussed in the Congress of the Republic and that they can be transformed into laws if Colombian society wants it, these reforms, if we wanted to synthesize them, make them readable in everyday language (…) they want a young man to be able to go to university if he wants, an old man or a woman to be able to have a pension and a bowl of hot soup in a decent lodging; it means that a worker can have job stability,” the president said.

Accompanied by Verónica Alcocer and her daughter Antonella, the Head of State spoke to thousands of people on the reforms of the national government. Presidency.

Gustavo Petro came out on the balcony of the Casa de Nariño to defend his government’s controversial reforms

In the midst of several taunts and heated questions to various sectors of the press and to “the two biggest bankers in Colombia”, the President of the Republic spoke about the transformations he intends to bring to the pension, health and work

In addition, the president underlined what it means that his voters chose at the polls the “changewhich was his campaign flag. “It can’t be a change of lies, of make-up. Only if the people abandon their government can the change stop. The change will be more and more profound insofar as the majorities of society accompany us. Change is only possible with the people,” the national president said.

And he continued: “(Colombia) chose was not just a person, Gustavo Petro to the Presidency. What was done in the elections was to return the government to the people. It has to be expressed in historical reality, in everyday life, in the way we claim the changes in this country can be.”

During his socialization speech, President Gustavo Petro criticized the current health system and deepened the need to approve the reform proposed by his administration. Presidency.

Gustavo Petro criticized the current health system and said: “We have a subsidized scheme that provides health to the poor”

The president also questioned Colombia’s bottom spot in the OECD Maternal Mortality Index

In this sense, the President has defended each of the reforms that his government is proposing, starting with the health reform:

“They tell us in the reviews that the territory cannot be organized in such a way, that every twenty thousand people. There may be organized health teams constantly visiting houses to see the state of health, because there are not enough doctors and nurses and they are right. What will be the abandonment in which they left the service, that the educational system does not graduate a sufficient number. This is why in the project it is that the State will start to open faculties on the national territory”, he expressed.

Then he moved on to labor reformcriticizing the “neoliberalismand judging that his government will try to change the working day.

“We are also going to present labor reform, a reform of Law 50, Law 100, the laws of neoliberalism. What do we want in labor reform? That the day ends at 6 o’clock in the afternoon, not at 10 o’clock in the evening; We want there to be a Saturday and a Sunday that are considered rest days,” said the National President. “And that, therefore, when working beyond 6:00 p.m. there are extras in the salary.”

He also mentioned the pension reform, defending the system of pillars that he wants to create, in which the elderly would have a guaranteed monthly income, then the workers would contribute to the public system (Colpensiones) up to four minimum wages; now, anyone who wants to can save in private funds.

Accompanied by Verónica Alcocer and her daughter Antonella, the Head of State spoke to thousands of people on the reforms of the national government. Presidency.
Accompanied by Verónica Alcocer and her daughter Antonella, the Head of State spoke to thousands of people on the reforms of the national government. Presidency.

Another topic he spoke about was the release of young people from First line. “They release the murderers, they release the gangsters, but they don’t release the young people, they fear they will become managers of peace,” he said. “We would not have won at the polls if the population, the youth, had not taken to the streets”, he also underlined.

Finally, he appealed to Congress: “But what I must warn is that if, under any circumstances, the reforms are introduced in Congress, all they do is build, not the roads of a social pact and not the ways of peace. Here a phase of the history of Colombia is being built, in the midst of so much violence, here we have made a parenthesis that the Colombian people wanted to do at the polls and here what is proposed is a pact in which the people make do not kneel »

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