In Colombia, it seems that Congress does not exist. It only came into operation a few days ago virtually and now it is debated between long endless discussion sessions and the impossibility of having an impact on the national agenda. You could say that four different situations are happening. On the one hand, a very large block of congressmen is scared by the covid-19 or they are very comfortable from their homes. They don't push too hard for the sessions and voting to come back. Obviously, everyone has their fears, many have health problems and a good part is over 55 years old.
Secondly, there is despair, mainly in the House of Representatives, because the congressmen who presented bills will see all their initiatives fail in June. Therefore, this bloc pressures for the return and for the legislative agenda not to be shipwrecked. Thirdly, the happiest with this virtual situation are the members of the ruling party, the Democratic Center, and the government itself, which literally has no political control. Virtual sessions are long, congressmen are barely allowed to speak for three to five minutes. In that time it is impossible to do control. Finally, the Government wants to press virtual voting on the legislative agenda, thereby guaranteeing the approval of its key projects, without having any kind of political control.
This situation of paralysis in Congress collided with two realities. On the one hand, the government party launched three proposals in recent days. One of them, reducing Congress with the apology of saving resources. In real life, this would severely punish many Colombian territories that have little political representation. In the country, seven departments have 52% of political representation and 70% of GDP, while 11 departments have 9% of political representation and 4% of GDP. That makes Colombia a geographical Apartheid. A reduction in Congress would only deepen this. But, above all, a reduction in Congress would cause it to be more manipulable by the Executive.
The other proposal launched by one of the congressmen of the Government party is the "intervention" to the Congress of the Republic. For him, political control torperates the country's development. But the cherry on the cake came from the hand of another congressman from the Democratic Center, who in a kind of advance said that the resources of the implementation of the peace agreement should be used in the emergency of covid-19. The issue is that much of the process is underfunded. Furthermore, a large part of the implementation of the peace process is aimed at the most disadvantaged. For example, it includes a large rural health plan, which has not been implemented and which, if implemented, would have reduced the vulnerability of the poorest places in Colombia to the arrival of the pandemic.
The other reality with which the absence of Congress collided is the bad image of the legislature in the country and, above all, how much this discourse of reduction and intervention has permeated important sectors of the population. In times of crisis and lack of financial resources, these kinds of speeches hit hard. Reducing Congress would save very little money, but it sounds good to most.
This being the case, everything seems to indicate that the proposals launched by members of the ruling party seek to set the political debate for a possible profound reform of the balance of powers. A dream that, for others, they have always had. But the other conclusion is that, indeed, there is an absent Congress, the debate is centered between the president and the mayors and governors. The outcome of the story does not yet seem clear, each congressman is on his side trying to get noticed and it seems that the political parties have little influence.
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