We saw the most impressive political image of these years in Colombia this week. It captures the meeting between President Gustavo Petro and former president Álvaro Uribe, in the Casa de Nariño, in a talk lasting more than an hour, accompanied by the Minister of the Interior, Alfonso Prada, and Uribe senators Miguel Uribe and Óscar Darío Pérez .
It was a cordial meeting, despite the great disagreements in the management of the Armed Forces and in various projects on the legislative agenda. There was some coincidence, as in the case of the purchase of land that the Government wants to make to distribute among the poorest peasants.
It is not the first time they have met in these months, and that is why the photo is so powerful: it indicates that there is continuity in the dialogue, that this can become a good habit without the country going back to silly times when no one was in opposition, except the guerrillas. That two central protagonists of twenty years of incendiary tension are capable of sitting down to talk to process disagreements is a republican sign like few others in recent history.
The differences will still be there and will feed raw debates, but if this dialogue continues it will prove that disagreements, instead of poisoning democracy, can feed it. There are plenty of topics for discussion, and since agreement is not possible on many of them, institutional mechanisms – such as votes in Congress – will come to settle them.
But there is also room for eventual agreements. Apart from the land issue –for now, just a statement from the President–, the tax reform and the gradual dismantling of the gasoline subsidy should become subjects of consensus. I believe that both the Government and the opposition can share the objective of fiscal balance and monetary health, a hallmark of quality in Colombia for decades, which has differentiated the country from many of its neighbors such as Argentina or Venezuela, and which has saved us the hyperinflation and debt default.
The tax reform has been advancing in Congress, thanks to the will for dialogue of the Minister of Finance, José Antonio Ocampo, and the work of several congressmen. Together they have smoothed out some of the sharpest edges of the original project, which threatened to overwhelm the private sector and paralyze investment, at a high cost in unemployment.
As for the dismantling of the gasoline subsidy, it is pleasantly surprising that a leftist government distances itself from the populist custom of multiplying subsidies, and opts for a responsible plan to reduce such onerous aid. At a time when climate change invites us to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels, such as gasoline, subsidizing it is nonsense.
Colombia is one of the 16 countries on the planet with the cheapest gasoline: its price is equivalent to half of what they pay in the United States. But in addition, that subsidy causes a good portion of the country’s fiscal deficit, and that generates inflation and forces higher taxes. An agreement on these issues, between the government and the opposition, would be healthy for public finances and, of course, for democracy.
What to do so that this dialogue continues? The opposition can – and must – fulfill its role of criticism and control, with high-level debates in Congress and peaceful marches like this week, hopefully without the sad episode of the ignorant lady who insulted Vice President Francia Márquez. But the greatest responsibility rests with President Petro: for this republican exercise to continue to be possible and bring benefits, the president must remain within the respect for institutional rules, without giving in to temptations such as re-establishing re-election or imposing arbitrary expropriations, which would return to trigger polarization.
MAURICIO VARGAS
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(read all columns by Mauricio Vargas in EL TIEMPO, here)