The debate around the first lady opens cracks in Petrism

Verónica Alcocer's visibility has long irritated the political opposition in Colombia. Now, the growing debate around the figure of the first lady, fueled by the million-dollar expenses of her closest circle, has also exposed cracks among sectors related to President Gustavo Petro. And even heated public discussions. “Today women do not want to be first ladies, they want to be presidents,” defended Congressman David Racero, one of the most visible faces of the ruling Historical Pact. “That title of first lady is not contemplated in the constitution,” he pointed out in a recent interview with W Radio.

“The figure of first lady should not exist. The wife of a president would do well to renounce that title and reaffirm her life project completely independent of the Presidency of her husband. “I agree with everything that representative Racero says,” the actress Margarita Rosa de Francisco, who has become a kind of influencer progressive who supported the campaign of the first left-wing president of contemporary Colombia. That message sparked a new discussion.

The first to respond was a public official who has been surrounded by controversy, the manager of international affairs and government of ProColombia, María Antonia Pardo. “Just as not all women want to leave the house to be executives and prefer to stay and do the hardest and most thankless work, which is work at home and raising children; There are first ladies who want to do social work as managers and support their husbands. And that is fine too,” wrote Nany Pardo, as she is known. She was at the time press chief for the Petro candidate and was the wife of the representative to the Chamber Agmeth Escaf, another congressman of the Historical Pact very close to Alcocer.

In his message he criticized both Racero and former senator Gustavo Bolívar, in turn very close to Petro, for “attacking Verónica.” “I have never seen an ally of a president messing with his wife like that (…) Instead of surrounding her, which is what they should do, instead of protecting her, they join the irrational attacks of the opposition stating that there is waste, which is false. You have no idea what valuable work Verónica does! If they knew, they would shut up,” he rebuked them on X, formerly Twitter. “The reflection I make goes beyond Verónica. “I am not attacking her, but rather the figure of herself as first lady, out of pure republican principle,” Racero responded. “Your comment shows that you didn't understand anything,” the representative for Bogotá said when asking for respect in the face of an expression that “expresses servile childishness to look good with the boss.”

In reality, Racero, who was the first president of the House of Representatives in Petro's four-year term, has done nothing more than endorse the criticism of the figure of the first lady that had already been aired in the Government of Iván Duque, when the couple Presidential was María Juliana Ruiz. Beyond the person or the president in office, “titles in democracy are an obsolete legacy when they are linked to the person and not to the function, much less to responsibility,” he has argued on more than one occasion.

In Colombia, the first lady does not have clearly defined functions. In formal terms she is not a public official, she does not have her own budget nor can she be summoned for political control. However, she does usually manage Departments and her expenses are a source of controversy. President Petro's third wife, according to an investigation by The Empty Chair, “has used his power to have an entourage that has cost the State more than a billion pesos” (about $250,000) in the year and a half he has been in power. The entourage that usually accompanies her on her trips includes her best friend, a photographer, a personal makeup and wardrobe artist, and a personal advisor, hired by three different public entities, with salaries similar to or higher than those of a minister. These revelations clash with the narrative of a Government that prides itself on being progressive, popular and austere in public spending.

Nany Pardo herself is one of the many appointments in the public administration that the press attributes to the first lady. Subordinate to the president of ProColombia, Carmen Caballero, a dentist who is a friend of Alcocer, Pardo has a salary of 28 million pesos per month (just over 7,000 dollars), higher than that of a minister (24.2 million per month). “Beyond her work at ProColombia, Pardo is known within the Nariño Palace as Verónica Alcocer's communications advisor and right-hand woman. “She manages the agenda, logistics, meetings, events and trips of the first lady,” says the publication of The Empty Chair which revived the debate.

The difficult, long-standing discussion also involves gender stereotypes. In any case, it has increased in volume with Alcocer, which had a marked role in the campaign, with mass baths in the public square. Already in power, he has been a diplomatic representative of the Petro Government on several occasions, visited Pope Francis and led the Colombian delegation both at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II of England and at that of the former Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe. .

In one of his most controversial outings, he appeared at night and by surprise last March at the Congress facilities, a few meters from the Casa de Nariño, while a meeting was underway with several ministers and congressmen (including representative Escaf ) that sought to unblock the legislative process of the controversial health reform. The president was traveling to the United States, and from many different sides they interpreted that visit as undue interference to carry out the Government's great legislative commitment.

It is difficult to hold the first lady accountable, this one or any of the previous ones, because there is a legal vacuum about what their responsibilities are, analyst Eugénie Richard told this newspaper. “It all depends on tradition, the president in turn and the personality of the first lady. “Some are interested in being very discreet and others are interested in being protagonists,” she assesses. The discussion about the convenience of abolishing this figure in the future – or at least regulating it – has made its way, even among the ranks of the ruling party.

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