For some time now, the clouds have been gathering over Colombia’s first leftist president. In three months in power, Gustavo Petro saw his popularity drop by 10 points, to 46%. The end of the honeymoon?
A notice of “storm” in any case, according to the conservative review Week, which specifies:
“The soaring dollar, inflation, rising interest rates, the phantom of the global recession and contradictory versions of the government have mixed together to create a panorama of uncertainties.”
It must be said that inflation reached 11.4% in September, the highest rate of this century, while the local currency, in full devaluation, was trading at practically 5,000 Colombian pesos per dollar on Tuesday, October 25. , a first.
And if this beginning of the crisis is largely due to external and global factors, it is also linked to the tax reform that the government is trying to push through. A reform supposed to make pay mainly the oil and mining companies as well as the richest, in this deeply unequal country.
The rebellion rumbles
Applauded at first, the reform is now being weighed down by “oil and mining sectors and, in general, businessmen”, who “started a battle” against the presidency since“they feel that their businesses are at risk with the proposed tax burden”, reports Week.
But, while the additional revenue from higher oil prices is expected to bring in around $5,000 million in 2023, more than the tax reform already cut by parliamentary committees expects to be raised, the government is not fully giving his arm to twist.
The president, whose concessions make his constituents cringe, continues to defend certain taxes for oil and mining companies, and assumes that he wants to ban new concessions for environmental issues, a key point in his governance project, even if he is willing to revise the proposals on a case-by-case basis.
Leave to wipe a “perfect storm”, while his own ministers are divided between “radicals” on the left and moderates, specifies Week, and that rebellion is brewing within his coalition, where the Liberals are demanding to maintain fossil fuels, the country’s main source of financing, while Petro wants to bet on renewable energies.