Madrid (EFE).- The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, has opted this Wednesday to promote a “new brotherhood” between Spain and Colombia, which does not remember the past but allows us to face together the threats of the climate crisis and the challenges of future of humanity.
“We have to act together,” Petro encouraged in his speech in the Congress of Deputies, as part of his state visit to Spain.
The Colombian president has highlighted the importance of Spain occupying the Presidency of the Council of the EU, within the framework of which a summit will be held that will bring the EU together with the Community of Latin American and Brazilian States (Celac).
For Petro, it is obvious that humanity is in danger, that science warns that “we are at the beginning of the times of extinction, which is not the apocalypse of the Bible, but it looks like it.”
It is a moment “of profound crisis, of paradigm shift, of cultures, of ways of being, of ways of producing”, which humanity must face united with science as a “beacon that illuminates and guides the way”.
Batet praises the reforms undertaken by Petro in Colombia
Already in the Congress of Deputies, the president of the chamber, Meritxell Batet, has praised the reforms that the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, is undertaking in his country and that “pursue the objectives that our country shares to achieve a higher level of social justice” and welcomed the Colombian leader to Congress.
In an institutional act attended by fourteen government ministers and in which the President of Colombia intervenes in the hemicycle rostrum, Batet has influenced the “common” values that Spain has with Colombia and the need to strengthen alliances “because it’s crucial”.
“On behalf of the Cortes Generales, we reiterate our fraternal welcome and that your efforts to achieve total peace benefit all Colombians,” the president of Congress told her after praising the “reformist challenges” she has undertaken in Colombia and that we “follow with special interest.”
The President of Colombia listened carefully to Batet’s speech in which he recalled that the history of his country “has not been easy” but that the will of Colombians “has remained firm and faithful to democratic values.”
The president of Congress has said that the antidote to fear “is collective government, it is democracy” and has insisted that consensus can also be reached through public and serene debate.
Felipe VI meets and has lunch with Petro at the Zarzuela
Felipe VI has held a meeting this Wednesday with the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, to exchange impressions on the state of bilateral relations and at the end he has offered him a lunch to which Queen Letizia and the first lady of the South American country have joined , Veronica Alcocer.
The meeting took place after the king and queen officially welcomed Petro at the Royal Palace at the start of his state visit to Spain after he took power last August.
Before the talk, Don Felipe and Petro posed in the Audience Hall before the graphic media, where the Colombian president, who was a member of the M-19 guerrilla, jokingly commented: “From photo to photo until the ultimate victory.”
The two heads of state have commented on the main aspects of the relationship between the two countries after Petro took over from Iván Duque and became the first left-wing president of Colombia.
The king attended the investiture of the Colombian president in Bogotá, which was marked by the controversy that arose from the fact that Don Felipe did not rise before the passing of the sword of Simón Bolívar when he passed before the dais of authorities, which It was not planned at the beginning.
Unlike other presidents invited to the ceremony, the monarch remained seated as there was no official symbol of the State, such as the flag and the anthem.
Abascal: The red carpet in Congress for Petro is laundering a terrorist
The deputies of Vox have been absent from the congressional chamber this Wednesday when the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, began his speech, and its leader, Santiago Abascal, has criticized the fact that he has been put on a “red carpet”, because that supposes “whitening ” of “an unrepentant terrorist”.
After leaving the plenary hall of Congress with his fellow bench members, Abascal told journalists that “Petro is to Colombia what Otegi is to Spain, an unrepentant terrorist”, in reference to Arnaldo Otegi, general coordinator of EH Bildu.
As Abascal has added, Petro, before beginning his state visit to Spain, “has insulted Spain, to later receive the necklace from Queen Isabel the Catholic”, given that the Colombian president in an act for Labor Day made a reference to the Spanish yoke for Latin America in relation to the history of centuries ago.
The spokesperson for the PP in the Congress of Deputies, Cuca Gamarra, has highlighted for her part that the presence of the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, in Madrid is part of a state visit and, consequently, “Colombia is always well received in Spain”.