Gustavo Petro has accepted this Thursday all the leonine conditions that Rodolfo Hernández has imposed to hold a debate: that it be held in Bucaramanga, his city, that it be moderated by journalists that he considers related to his campaign and that most of the issues to be discussed are not of the government program of both, but of controversies related to the candidacy of the left-wing politician.
The proposal made by Hernández through a statement, in which all the basic rules of courtesy are ignored, seemed impossible to accept three days before going to the polls, where a scenario of neutrality should prevail, but Petro has picked up the glove without doubt it.
“You can put the conditions you want, I have no problem.
I am willing to go to Bucaramanga, wherever he wants, ”he replied.
The debate, however, continues in the air due to the deadlines in which it should be fulfilled: today.
A court on Wednesday ordered the two candidates to come to an agreement and hold it within 48 hours.
The Petro team gave their consent to the RTVC public media system, which was in charge of organizing the event.
Hernández, on the other hand, asked for a clarification of the ruling to delay the sentence that forced him to debate and thus let time run.
In this way it seemed that the matter was going to die, when the former mayor of Bucaramanga has released an emboldened statement: “I am also ready as I have been for 50 years when I decided to build homes, create jobs, pay taxes and not live like a bureaucrat professional".
I accept that the debate ordered by justice be held.
The debate must be without conditions to the press who ask what they want.
– Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) June 16, 2022
In that document it says that the court ruling was promoted by "you and your affiliates", referring to Petro.
In one of his usual outbursts that have been known these weeks, Hernández said that he wiped his butt with the law.
To finish, he asks for speed to be able to debate in the following 12 hours.
“As if a debate were capable of erasing our past and the RODOLFISTAS DE CORAZÓN that four years ago were 8 million and that now were 8 and a half million (referring to Petro voters) were going to change their minds because of what I say or stop saying in the deified and mythologized debate”, he writes.
Petro, later, returned to show by letter his full willingness to meet face to face with Hernández.
He is convinced that his experience as a parliamentarian and the dozens of debates in which he has participated have prepared him for this final moment.
It is his now or never as a presidential candidate.
“I'm glad you agreed to debate.
You didn't want to, they force you”, he insists.
He continues: “However, I do not put conditions on this debate.
None.
He left all the details of the debate in the hands of the RTVC Public Media System: from the moderators, to the topics, including of course the ones you raise”.
Despite his “provocative letter”, he replies: “You say that you accept the debate.
Is not true.
You mock the debate, Justice, the media and Colombians by wanting to impose conditions.
No matter.
His contempt for the slightest democratic norms is total and revealing.
His contempt for the millions of Colombians who have the right to contrast our programs and solutions is very illuminating.
See you in Bucaramanga, of course”.
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