BOGOTÁ, Colombia (AP) — Colombian President Gustavo Petro mentioned Tuesday he’ll name for a particular election during which voters will be capable to approve or reject labor reform and well being reform, which have been stalled for months in congress.
In a nationally televised speech, Petro accused Colombia’s senate of “mocking” voters and siding with the nation’s “oligarchy” by turning down his efforts to reform the nation’s labor legal guidelines and its well being system.
With dozens of activists and pro-government politicians standing behind him, Petro referred to as on his supporters to mobilize in favor of his authorities’s reforms.
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“We’ve searched in our structure for a path that may allow folks to make selections with out intermediaries,” Petro mentioned. “Now the folks should determine in the event that they need to be slaves, or in the event that they need to be free and respectable.”
Petro’s proposal got here simply hours after a gaggle of eight senators issued an announcement saying they’d reject the president’s well being reform in a vital committee vote.
The Colombian president has typically struggled to get laws handed by the nation’s congress, the place his social gathering lacks a majority of seats.
Throughout his presidential marketing campaign in 2022, Petro promised he would remodel Colombia’s well being system by eliminating insurance coverage corporations that deal with compulsory social safety funds and put a authorities company answerable for administering these funds.
Petro has accused insurance coverage corporations of mishandling thousands and thousands of {dollars}. However his well being reform has been turned down a number of instances by legislators who argue it might give an excessive amount of energy to authorities bureaucrats and say the federal government doesn’t have the capability to manage thousands and thousands of sufferers.
Petro, a leftist who has lengthy advocated for extra authorities intervention within the economic system, has additionally struggled to get his labor reform by way of congress. He has proposed growing pay for nocturnal employees, and making it more durable for corporations to rent employees on short-term contracts.
The particular election that the president has referred to as for is called a “fashionable session” in Colombian laws. To be carried out it have to be permitted by a majority Colombia’s senate. Within the session, voters have to be introduced with questions which have sure and no solutions. Not less than a 3rd of all registered voters should take part within the session to ensure that the outcomes to be carried out.
