Petro does not give in on key issues and improves his popularity

The thesis that circulated two years ago in the spheres of Colombian power is that Gustavo Petro could not govern the country alone, in his own way.

He needed an anchor with the political center that would deactivate the fear caused by his arrival.

The president placed alongside him seasoned liberal economists who ensured his direct connection with the country's magnates and relaxed the stress of the markets.

That kind of small government of concertation denatured him, did not let him be himself and ended up breaking him.

He would die with his ideas, he said.

His popularity resented him.

A lot of noise was generated around him and that, added to the paralysis of the Government, wore him down.

Petro himself recognizes that he has lost time and that he needs to make up for it in what he has left in the Palace.

And that means returning to his essence and not giving in on matters that he considers vital, even though he has everyone against him, sometimes his own circle.

That Petro, impractical if you will, has kept Laura Sarabia, his second, by his side, despite the fact that she is investigated by the Prosecutor's Office in a case complicated by the polygraph to which his nanny was subjected.

He does not let Chancellor Álvaro Leyva fall for having turned an administrative issue, the printing of passports, into an institutional crisis.

The easiest thing would have been to get Leyva out of the way and put in his place the one who now acts as temporary chancellor, Luis Gilberto Murillo, a guy with an impeccable appearance who sounds like Petro's successor.

But those would be political calculations that the average leaders would make.

He is out of the ordinary in every way.

Throughout his career he did not shy away from friction.

He built her image on her and became popular in a country that—until her election—preferred to vote for leaders close to the

.

Much of her success comes from her public feuds with former right-wing President Álvaro Uribe, who governed Colombia for two consecutive terms and left the head of state in 2010 with a 63% approval rating.

Establishing himself as the nemesis of the main political phenomenon of the last four decades proved useful.

When Uribe's image was negatively affected in the following years, Petro smelled the opportunity and made the leap to power scenarios unknown to the left, becoming mayor of Bogotá and then president.

Frequent clashing with his opponents for leverage brought him to this point and it seems he refuses to stop.

Opponents of Gustavo Petro's government march this Wednesday in Bogotá (Colombia). Mauricio Dueñas Castañeda (EFE)

Petro's insistence that the Supreme Court soon elect a new attorney general;

Leyva's closed defense;

and the appointments of Sarabia, added to that of Gustavo Bolívar, in high positions in the Government are a sign that he remains attached to this formula.

These decisions have brought him dozens of criticisms, which are added to those that already existed as a result of the reform package that he presented to the Legislature, but the president remains firm.

It is difficult to recall an episode in his 40 years of public life in which he has backed down.

From his time as mayor, moments are remembered in which he preferred to show his officials the exit door rather than give in to the implementation of any of his policies.

Something similar has happened during his mandate with the resignation of some of his ministers, such as Alejandro Gaviria and José Antonio Ocampo, economists who headed the Health and Finance portfolios during the first months of his Administration and with whom he ended. on bad terms.

That applies to all fields.

The Attorney General's Office is the entity in charge of investigating and prosecuting criminals in Colombia.

It is an entity with excessive bureaucratic and political power.

Currently, it is temporarily directed by Martha Mancera, a woman who is not in Petro's affections.

But the president's discomfort with Mancera is not directly with her, but with her former boss, Francisco Barbosa, who was a prosecutor until February 13 and took advantage of the position to oppose many of the Government's plans.

The relationship between the two was tense—Barbosa called Petro a “dictator” and he accused him of wanting to force “an institutional rupture” to remove him from power—so the president has been insistent that the Supreme Court of Justice soon elect its replacement.

Since the end of September, the judges of the Court have been evaluating the resumes of the shortlists, but they have not been able to reach an agreement on which one should be chosen.

On February 8, one of the votes took place.

There was no white smoke, which led Mancera to temporarily occupy Barbosa's functions since then.

An angry crowd gathered at the entrance to the Court premises and prevented the members of the Court from leaving.

Although the president did not call the protesters, teachers unions that supported his candidacy did.

The incident did not go down well with senior Justice leaders, who published statements rejecting what happened and calling it an attack on democracy.

For Petro it was the opposite, the maximum expression of the voice of the people.

The opposition directed its questions to the president, accusing him of pressuring the judges.

There was fear of a possible confrontation between the Government and the Judicial Branch.

Not necessarily just because of this, but in the following week he raised his popularity from 26 to 35%.

The break with the judges did not occur.

Another vote was held later and the number of votes obtained by one of the candidates indicates that the announcement of a new prosecutor is close.

The amount of support has been growing in favor of Amelia Pérez, a former prosecutor who investigated paramilitarism in the nineties, and it is possible that she will be the next attorney general.

Petro is about to get his way again.

Neither giving in nor pleasing anyone, simply being him.

This Wednesday an opposition march was called in the center of Bogotá that barely had any impact.

The streets looked empty.

Petro has found his place in the castling.

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