“The New Liberalism Guarantees Tribunal will evaluate Carlos Negret's behavior”: Juan Manuel Galán

On Tuesday, April 5, the former Ombudsman and former Colombian Senate candidate for the New Liberalism, Carlos Negret, announced that he would join the presidential campaign of the Team's candidate for Colombia, Federico Gutiérrez, less than two months after the first presidential round takes place.

This announcement by the former defender was criticized by members of the Centro Esperanza Coalition, a central alliance of which the community that gave him the endorsement for Congress and that did not reach the voting threshold, and by members of his party such as former senator and former presidential candidate of the Centro Esperanza Coalition, Juan Manuel Galán, who announced that the New Liberalism Guarantees Tribunal will evaluate this surprising decision.

“Carlos Negret's formal announcement to support right-wing candidate Federico Gutiérrez strongly forces us to reiterate that this is not the official position of the New Liberalism. The party's Court of Guarantees will evaluate Negret's conduct and rule according to the statutes and the Coalition Agreement signed by the party,” said former Senator Juan Manuel Galán.

He also indicated that the members of the collective, which was founded by liberal leader Luis Carlos Galán and which recently received legal status, have a duty to support the candidacy of the former governor of Antioquia and former mayor of Medellín, Sergio Fajardo, who was the candidate who won the internal consultation of the coalition of center.

At the same time, he pointed out that those who do not follow the commitments of the New Liberalism together with the Esperanza Center Coalition “cannot claim any spokesperson or representation of the party,” indicating that the collective “was not reborn to be a 'falton' party that breaches the word and agreements. We are with Sergio Fajardo with conviction because hope is with Fajardo”, concluded Juan Manuel Galán.

For her part, the academic and former candidate for Congress for this community, Sandra Borda, reiterated that this was not the party's position, noting that the community remains “stronger than ever” on the side of the candidate of the center alliance, a position that was endorsed by the candidate for the House of Representatives, Fernando Posada, who indicated that decision was contradictory “with the principles we accepted as candidates of the New Liberalism for Congress. We built the Coalition of Hope to support it, not to turn our backs on it.”

For his part, the former defender indicated, in statements collected by Semana that, “The New Liberalism cannot claim a dog discipline, neither is the party a fallon nor is Carlos Negret a falton. That should be clear and I was always clear and said things head-on. The party is not just Juan Manuel Galán,” while noting that several of the party's members are in Gustavo Petro's campaign or Federico Gutiérrez's campaign.

Finally, he said that it was better to tell the truth and that if this represented his departure from the match, “well, I'm leaving because I did things head-on, but apparently that bothers them. Many historical members of the match have left and it is incredible that we cannot think differently than Juan Manuel Galán”, he said.

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