Gustavo Petro and Francia Márquez receive the credentials as President and Vice President-elect from the National Electoral Council, in Bogotá. DPA via Europa Press (Europa Press)
A change of was calmer than anticipated.
Gustavo Petro's first week as president-elect of Colombia was consumed between the first steps of a great national agreement that would allow governability to the first president of the left, multiple calls for dialogue, some economic stability and accurate stitches about the place in the world of the new Colombian diplomacy.
Along the way, the postcard of a cordial meeting with Iván Duque in a Versailles room in the Casa de Nariño, despite being two men at the opposite ideological poles who have never hidden their mutual mistrust.
The next president of Colombia seemed to face a complex scenario from the start before a divided Congress, without guaranteed majorities and with the need to forge alliances.
But even in full post-election hangover, the Historical Pact aims to achieve a government coalition with the Liberal Party and the Green Alliance.
The opposition does not have a defined leader, but the main representatives of the right recognized Petro's victory without delay.
From President Duque, to Federico Gutiérrez or Rodolfo Hernández, his rival in the second round, who has already said that he does not intend to declare himself in opposition.
Even former President Álvaro Uribe, called to be part of the great national agreement called by the Historical Pact to turn the page on polarization.
“Colombia will appreciate that we find common ground for a common homeland”,
"What has predominated is the call for dialogue everywhere, and the feeling is one of certain relief after a very long and very tense campaign," says Yann Basset, professor of Political Science at the Universidad del Rosario.
He has prevailed a certain atmosphere of conciliation and harmony.
“This change is very striking.
Basically, it is quite expected in a democracy that there is this type of confrontation, which sometimes seems very radical and about to explode;
finally, as soon as the elections are over, the tension drops again and everyone tries to adjust to the new situation”.
He warns, however, that politics is likely to return to debate and conflict sooner rather than later.
“I don't know if I can talk about a honeymoon, because Petro has always aroused love and hate.
However, I think that people are going to give him a truce so that he can start the government from him ”, agrees Eugénie Richard, an expert teacher in
marketing
politician from the Externado University of Colombia.
Given the expectations, hopes and fears that his election has caused, the first days were presented as a challenge.
"The decisions that he has made in terms of political and symbolic communication have been important and correct," says Richard, valuing, among others, the invitation to dialogue that he has extended both to other parties and to former President Uribe.
“The tonality was according to the type of campaign it had.
He talked about the politics of love, so far he has not gotten into fights with anyone;
he has invited everyone to work with him, and that works well for the moment”.
The week left several milestones.
Petro visited the Government Palace on Thursday, which in a month and a half will be his new home.
He did so shortly after having collected the credentials that accredit him as elected president, together with his vice-presidential formula, Francia Márquez, herself a symbol of the new times.
In the images that were released of the meeting at the Casa de Nariño, he was seen smiling and relaxed.
The former mayor of Bogotá himself said that President Duque taught him the "mythical" sword of Simón Bolívar, the same one that the M-19 guerrilla, to which he belonged in his youth, stole at the beginning of 1974 to turn it into a symbol of his movement.
When the rebels signed peace in 1990, they returned it to the Government of César Gaviria.
In one of the phrases that resonated the most in his speech on election Sunday, Petro said that he intended to "develop capitalism in Colombia."
As is often the case when a leftist president is elected in Latin America, the markets wake up nervous after the elections.
As Monday was a holiday in the Andean country, on Tuesday there was some uncertainty, with a slight increase in the price of the dollar, which at the end of the week was approaching its historical maximum (the currency closed on Friday at 4,129 pesos on average, to 24 of the mark of 4,153 pesos of March 2020).
The next president has also proposed stopping oil exploration, with which Ecopetrol's action lost ground throughout the week.
Although very far from the panic that was feared, and in the midst of calls for calm,
"The incoming government must urgently appoint members of the Cabinet who provide credibility on three issues: the economy, security and foreign relations," warned the post-election analysis by the consulting firm Colombia Risk Analysis.
“During the campaign, Petro talked a lot about unorthodox economic policy measures,” he recalled.
For now, Petro has calmed the waters by associating several reputable names to his economic team.
In the final stretch of the campaign, prestigious economists landed, more linked to the political center, such as former ministers José Antonio Ocampo, Rudolf Hommes (both have held the Treasury portfolio) and Alejandro Gaviria (Health).
“It is a very strong team, with very different schools of economic thought, a great power in public economic policy,” Petro told El PAÍS last week,
Regardless of expectations, speculation and rumours, Petro only confirmed the first name of the future Cabinet on Saturday, when he announced that veteran conservative politician Alvaro Leyva Durán, 79, who has advised multiple peace talks in recent decades in Colombia , will be Minister of Foreign Affairs from August 7.
“It will be a Foreign Ministry of Peace”, he wrote when making the announcement.
"Colombia will contribute to the world all its efforts to overcome the climate crisis, and we expect all the efforts from the world to overcome our endemic violence."
Throughout the week he had already given several foreign policy stitches, one of the areas in which he was seen to be most active, with two calls with the US president Joe Biden, on Tuesday, and the Venezuelan Nicolás Maduro, the Wednesday.
The president-elect has shown that he is looking for a new way of relating to Latin America, which looks out on a new progressive axis, without ceasing to be a strategic partner of Washington.
"Biden first, Maduro later," Richard points out about the order of the calls.
"Petro is very pragmatic, finally his appointment has opened several doors, first to the reestablishment of relations with Venezuela and second to a possible peace agreement with the ELN," he adds.
The last active guerrilla in Colombia has already announced its willingness to advance in a possible negotiation, and Leyva's name can also be interpreted as a step in that direction.
That said, dialogues everywhere.
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