'It's a blow against democracy': President Petro on the stagnation of health reform

The initiative was not discussed last week, and neither on Monday, February 24, because the vice presidents of that corporation, Lina María Garrido (Cambio Radical) and Jorge Tovar (peace seats), refuse to sign the agenda if the reform is scheduled.

They argue that it is not advisable to discuss the project until the fiscal impact of the reform is known. That is, how much it will cost the nation.

President Petro made the comment about the health reform in relation to his defense of the constitutionality of the pension reform, approved and sanctioned last year, and in the coming weeks, the Constitutional Court will decide whether to uphold it in light of the lawsuits for possible procedural defects.

In fact, the motion that will be studied by the Supreme Court's Plenary Chamber requests that the initiative be declared in failure because the House of Representatives, in the fourth debate of the project, adopted the same text approved in the Senate, which could be interpreted as a lack of discussion.

"There has been a two-year, deep and exhausting debate on the reform in public opinion, in Congress and, in particular, in the House and in its last debate in the House," he said in reference to an analysis by academic Rodrigo Uprimny.

The President added that the House, by adopting the Senate text, prevented the initiative from sinking into conciliation. According to the president, that was the intention of Iván Name, senator of Alianza Verde and at that time president of Congress.

That a single congressman, as would be in this case Iván Name, or as now the vice president of the Chamber, prevents the debate and the decision of the majority, is a blow against democracy in its most basic principle.

"The opposition's sabotage of the reforms presented by the Government has not been argumentative, but pure and simple filibustering, a parliamentary practice of obstruction that hopefully the Constitutional Court will not legitimize because it would end the function of Congress and degrade it," said the president, who has insisted to the high court not to sink the initiative.

According to the president, “screaming desperately for hours to prevent a vote that the majority wants to vote on is not democracy, it is just a lack of ideas and an anti-democratic blow against the Congress of the Republic and against the people.”

He added: “That a single congressman, as would be in this case Iván Name, or as now the vice president of the House, prevents the debate and the decision of the majority, is a blow against democracy in its most basic principle.”

It is not on the agenda for Tuesday either. It is expected that they will try to include it in the debate via a motion, but that move did not work out on Monday, when the government suffered a defeat.