Petro's Government, Part Two: The Revolutionary President

The reflection that Colombia has looked at in recent months turned out to be a mirage.

In a country traversed by half a century of war and deep political polarization, the idea that a former left-wing guerrilla could govern hand in hand with the traditional conservative parties has come to an end.

Nine months after Gustavo Petro's term began, the chips have returned to their position.

The president calls for mobilization, the peasants, the workers, he attacks the neoliberal elites.

The parties of the right accuse him of threatening democracy, of skipping the institutional framework, of wanting to perpetuate himself in power.

In politics, Colombia has returned to being Colombia, only now, for the first time in the country's modern history, the president is the one who incites the revolution.

Petro does not have it easy to "change the country" in four years, as he promises, but at least now he will feel more comfortable.

The coalition with which the government started worked only at the beginning.

After carrying out the tax reform quite successfully and in record time, the agreement with the right-wing parties began to stumble.

The president began to despair.

Petro has no time to lose, he needs results.

It has taken him decades of opposition to come to power and the achievements of his government will mark the future of the left in a country with a conservative tradition.

The idea of ​​a concerted government was great for a Colombia in which, although the inequalities are bloody, in many sectors there is not that sense of urgency that Petro has, that desire to turn the country around.

Poverty exceeds 40% but the macroeconomic reality paints a stable scenario in which business, political and economic elites feel comfortable;

Facts such as the reduction in unemployment give relief to the middle classes.

The majority is certain that reforms are needed, but resistance to profound changes is stronger.

The president knows exactly what he wants to do, he has spent years designing reforms to transform the pillars of the State, he wants to change the health system, make a labor reform, another pension, achieve a fairer distribution of land.

On the one hand, because he also wants to dismantle the ELN -the last active guerrilla in Latin America-, achieve an unknown peace in the entire Colombian territory, change the world paradigm of the war against drugs or lead a solution to the Venezuelan crisis.

Almost nothing, which is why the negotiations with the traditional political clans that end up undermining his reforms in Congress exasperate him.

Now he has recovered the usual Petro, who his people want to see, the left accustomed to the streets and to protest.

Those who were left cold by the pragmatic Petro of the beginning, putting the economy of the Government or the agrarian reform in the hands of moderate liberals.

Last week he fired seven ministers out of 19, including those who were part of the right-wing party quotas that ensured him a majority in Congress.

He surrounded himself with people from the left and former colleagues from his time as mayor of Bogotá (2012-2015).

He now searches among the bases and essences of the Liberal Party, led by the anti-Petrista and powerful although in low hours César Gaviria, the votes he needs in the chamber for his reforms to survive.

He doesn't have it easy.

That is why the support of the street is necessary.

This Monday, Labor Day, he sought the first great mobilization of his government.

After the cabinet reshuffle, he announced a speech from the balcony of the presidential palace.

He had already done it in February, but the date was decaffeinated then.

Now the unions put the rest and the president spoke before a square that acclaimed him and booed his opponents.

That is what he likes and he is good at, it was in the streets where his political figure grew up.

The plan is based on talking for hours to plug his own with left-wing proclamations while he drives his opponents crazy and lulls those who ignore politics with his monotonous tone.

In the hour long that his tirade lasted this time, Petro recovered the campaign candidate and the opposition leader of the past.

"Wanting to restrict the reforms can lead to revolution," he warned.

And he asked his family to mobilize to promote his work in the institutions.

He wants to take charge of breaking Gaviria to win over the handful of liberals who could give him a majority in Congress, while the youth, pensioners, peasants and the poor cheer for his reforms from the streets.

With this old recipe, Petro seeks to unravel a mandate in which he has already launched dozens of nets, but he has not yet collected anything.

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