In an interview with The W Radio, Former Vice President Germán Vargas Lleras expressed his criticism of several of the reforms promoted by the National Government, especially the pension reform, which has already been approved in its first debates in Congress.
In the interview, the former public official (he was vice president during the Santos Government) commented that the reform is “very inconvenient due to the extraordinary powers given to the president to reach nearly three million elderly people who have never saved a peso through subsidies.”
Given this statement by Vargas Lleras, María Fernanda Carrascal, representative of the Chamber belonging to the Government coalition, responded to him on her X account, accusing him of being “a monument to meanness.”
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“The autumnal Vargas Lleras says that the pension reform seems dangerous to him because thousands of Colombians who have not been able to save or access a pension and now will have the possibility of doing so, could vote in 2026 for the @PactoCol. A monument to meanness and a cry of despair from this man,” were the words of the congresswoman in her X account.
In addition to María Fernanda Carrascal, the Minister of the Interior, Luis Fernando Velasco, also made a publication on the social network X to talk about Germán Vargas Lleras’ objections to the pension reform. He particularly pointed out that Vargas Lleras criticized the pension bonus for older adults.
“Former vice president @German_Vargas with political honesty is pointing out in @WRadioColombia that one of the elements that he does not like about the #PensionReform is the bonus of about 250 thousand pesos for older adults who live in extreme poverty due to the electoral effects that this contribution may have,” said the portfolio manager.
To the above, Velasco added that: “I do not share that discomfort, in fact, I believe that bringing that small contribution to more than two million elderly people who suffer terrible needs in the last years of their lives and trying to dignify those moments justify the reform.”
On the other hand, the political leader of the opposition Radical Change party also mentioned the way in which the initiative was approved. Regarding this he said in his column published in Time titled ‘Everything was warned’ that: “They did it in the worst and most crude way (…) violating, once again, the regulations of Congress and ignoring numerous rulings of the Constitutional Court. He also commented that: “if they wanted to avoid the conciliation of the texts of both chambers, they achieved it, but they left the reform moribund.”
And the reform was approved in the House of Representatives with 88 votes in favor and 20 against. According to its critics, the House decided not to review the content in detail, but rather to directly approve what was sent by the Senate through a quick procedure.
Due to the above in the interview with the W Radio, former vice president Germán Vargas Lleras accused private funds of being complicit, highlighting the silence of Santiago Montenegro, president of Asofondos. According to Vargas Lleras, in exchange for this agreement, the commissions of these funds were increased, which would have reduced the existing pressure.
On this topic Vargas Lleras commented that: “Throughout this last year, the pension funds were active in explaining to public opinion and in Congress the drawbacks of the reform. (…) oh, surprise, when in this last vote only the Democratic Center, Cambio Radical and some parliamentarians abstained from voting on the reform in the previous days, no one mentioned anything again.”
And he added that: “It is curious that in the plenary session of the Chamber no modifications were introduced nor were there any discussions and the text was simply accepted in a very unconstitutional manner.”
In relation to this issue, Montenegro stated that they are “neither silent nor complacent.” In fact, they commented that this benefit surprised them.
