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The Uribismo candidate, Óscar Iván Zuluaga, resigned surprisingly and just one day after the results of the votes for the coalitions were known in which the candidate Federico Gutiérrez won the victory of his alliance, Equipo por Colombia. The more than two million votes open the possibility for the former mayor of Medellín to face the favorite in the polls, Gustavo Petro, gathering the different factions of Colombian conservatism. Will the right succeed in uniting against a strengthened left?
Óscar Iván Zuluaga, the candidate of the right-wing ruling Democratic Center party, stepped aside in the presidential race and joined Federico Gutiérrez, winner, on March 13, of the consultation of the right-wing coalition, Equipo por Colombia.
Uribista Zuluaga’s party did not make any public alliance with any candidate and it was assumed, until Monday, that the economist would compete to reach the House of Nariño.
In a determination that took the followers of former President Álvaro Uribe by surprise, since he renounced his aspirations just one day before the consultations, the now former candidate said that he made “the personal decision to accompany the aspiration of Federico Gutiérrez”, and added that “only united can we preserve democracy and freedom”.
After the fear generated for the right by the arrival to the presidency of the leftist Gustavo Petro, who obtained around 4,500,000 votes in the consultations of his coalition, Historical Pact, Zuluaga said that he resigned his candidacy “in view of the results yesterday and the need for unity for the good of Colombia”
In December 2021, Zuluaga had been chosen as the Uribe candidate, but his election raised criticism from the most extreme factions of his Democratic Center party, such as that of the re-elected senator María Fernanda Cabal who was seeking to run for the presidential elections.
Zuluaga’s candidacy was registered on March 9 and had analyst Alicia Eugenia Silva as vice-presidential ticket.
Zuluaga was Minister of Finance and Public Credit in the second government of Álvaro Uribe and had been a candidate for the Presidency in 2014, a race that he lost in the second round against Juan Manuel Santos.
The phenomenon of ‘Fico’ Gutierrez
The former mayor of Medellín, known as ‘Fico’, took the majority of the votes of his coalition, Team for Colombia, with more than two million votes and thus became the response of the right to counteract the vertiginous advance of Petro .
Political analysts have pointed to him as the “hidden” or unofficial candidate of former President Álvaro Uribe, since they saw that Zuluaga had no chance of reaching the voters and staying with the Presidency.
After winning the candidacy on Sunday, Gutiérrez attacked his opponent Petro and said that he received “with great joy, but above all with great humility and responsibility, this victory that we have obtained today as a team.”
In other announcements, he said that if he is the winner, he will fight against corruption and that he will have a Presidency “of the people.”
The path to the right to get to the Casa de Nariño
In order to reach the Presidency and consolidate itself as a political force that can beat the favorite in the polls, the right must unite to be able to counterbalance it.
In addition, it should win the votes of the center that would add up to more than two million, as reflected in the votes of the Esperanza Center coalition. With this they could sneak into the second presidential round. But the winner of the center consultation, Sergio Fajardo, has already announced that he will not join Uribismo, so a solo career is in sight in the first round.
Beyond overcoming fears on the left in a traditionally right-wing country, ‘Fico’ will have to propose a different country from the one left by current president Iván Duque, who leaves with an unfavorable image for not being able to translate the interests of Colombians into concrete actions.
Duque was widely criticized for his lack of experience, his controversial and unpopular decisions, not to mention the social discontent for his policies that ended in massive protests in the streets of Colombia.
Petro managed to capture that social discontent, this being his strongest card in the presidential elections.
The Colombian right will seek by all means to arrive on May 29 with a solid block, represented by ‘Fico’, which will stop a possible victory by Gustavo Petro in the first round, the number one objective of the left that, if achieved, would mark the history of the country. South American in which progressive leaders have not governed.
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