This is how the move was made with which the House of Representatives approved the pension reform of the government of President Gustavo Petro

The National Government’s plan B to approve the pension reform in the House of Representatives became plan A.

According to the criteria of

This week in the halls of the Congress of the Republic the version began to circulate that given the complex calendar that the initiative faced, that if it was not approved and reconciled on June 20 it would sink due to lack of processing, A proposal would be presented to accept the Senate text.

It was the same president Gustavo Petro, who in a meeting with congressmen from the Historical Pact, 15 days ago at the Cavalry School in Bogotá, put the possibility on the table.

The head of state assured that the only way to approve the reform was to form a coalition but recalled that Iván Name, president of Congress and opponent of the Government, issued serious warnings in the past about the implications of forming coalitions.

For this reason, the president told the parliamentarians that to prevent the project from sinking they should accept the Senate text. However, in the House they would try to approve the project.

The same speaker Martha Alfonso, from Alianza Verde, He told this newspaper in an interview that took place early this Friday that he did not agree with accepting the Senate text.

“It would be very unfortunate, because we have made very important improvements to the text that came from the Senate, but ultimately, if the conditions do not give another option, it will be up to the Colombian people to have a fair, balanced pension system that allows more people to retire in Colombia,” he said.

The possibility, which although controversial, would only be made if the final debate in plenary had not been concluded on Tuesday. This was confirmed by sources from the Casa de Nariño to this newspaper. It was even scheduled to meet this Saturday.

However, this Friday, a day when Congress usually does not meet, it was decided to present that proposal to score a victory at the end of the legislature, which was marked by the collapse of the health reform, in April.

This Friday’s day began around noon. A session on a Friday is not common, but given the complex calendar it was necessary. The House session even seemed like a council of ministers. Not only were the Minister of Labor, Gloria Inés Ramírez, and the Minister of the Interior, Luis Fernando Velasco. Also attending, for example, was Mauricio Lizcano, from ICT, who is close to ‘the U’. All forces were needed.

The thermometer were the proposals that asked to change the entry into force and the voting of the first articles. While the Government proposed July 2025, congressmen like Catherine Juvinao spoke of at least July 2026.

That proposal was defeated with 104 votes. That was when the House of Nariño and its allies realized that they had the majorities. There was quickly a meeting between the ministers present and spokespersons for the liberals, ‘greens’ and conservatives and they decided to launch the proposal. Each person said how many votes they would put in and the decision was made.

“We count the votes with the vote on the proposal on validity,” A congressional source confirmed to this newspaper. Likewise, the Government was upset about what, according to them, were the opposition’s moves to delay the debate.

“The plenary session of the honorable House of Representatives, after having rigorously, thoughtfully and democratically debated bill number 433 of 2024 Chamber and 293 of 2023 Senate (…) decided to approve in the fourth debate the final text approved by the plenary session of the Senate of the Republic duly published in the gazette of Congress 497 of 2024”, reads the text that was signed by more than 40 congressmen from the Liberal, Conservative, ‘la U’, Comunes, Historical Pact, among others.

The proposal began to circulate after 5 in the afternoon among the seats of the congressmen. Although it does not have a visible ‘father’, there is talk of David Racero, of the Historical Pact, Alfredo Ape Cuello of the Conservative Party and the Minister of the Interior himself, Luis Fernando Velasco, as the authors of the text. Nevertheless, Curiously, the document does not have the logo of a particular congressman, as generally happens with this type of proposals.

“Scandalous. The Government wants the Chamber to be a notary of the Senate to approve the pension reform without discussion. If the Senate text is approved, the pension administrators will celebrate because the Senate gave them a 2 percent commission that the Chamber eliminated” , warned House Representative Jennifer Pedraza.

“We have the right to have this proposition put to a vote,” stated, for his part, Ape Cuello, who is accused of having brought the Sports Minister’s resume to the Government.

And, around 6:30 in the afternoon, after more than six hours of discussion, which focused on voting on propositions, this controversial proposal received the support of 86 congressmen. He also obtained 37 against.

“Today the country has won because a structured pension reform to the old-age protection system has been approved,” stated Minister Gloria Inés Ramírez.

The Government celebrates today. The reform, for now, only needs the signature of President Gustavo Petro to become law, but a new battle will come in the Constitutional Court, since lawsuits have already been announced.

MATEO GARCÍA – POLITICAL EDITORIAL

EL TIEMPO is part of a conglomerate of companies to which an AFP belongs