The Cambio Radical Party seeks to rejoin the Liberal Party, a move supported by several prominent senators of President Juan Manuel Santos’ U Party, Colombian news site Confidencial Colombia reported Wednesday.
According to the website, the leadership of the Cambio Radical Party, which includes current Senate Vice President Antonio Guerra de la Espriella, accepted the request of Liberal Party leader Rafael Pardo to hold a conference on October 30 to discuss the reunification of the Liberal Party. The leaders also called on Cambio Radical followers to support the merger into a single political party.
Cambio Radical leader German Vargas Lleras left the Liberal Party in 1998 to form his own party and joined the coalition of former President Alvaro Uribe in 2006. However, after Vargas Lleras’ opposition to the 2010 reelection of Uribe, his party politically moved towards the old liberal dogmas and away from the hard-line policies of Uribe. Both Cambio Radical and the Liberal Party now form part of Santos’ coalition in Congress.
“Before, what was the difference? The fundamental difference: some were of the coalition that supported the government and the Liberal Party was in opposition. Today that difference does not exist. What once was dividing today does not divide,” explained Pardo.
According to Confidencial Colombia, the former President of Congress and U Party Senator Armando Benedetti, a once-prominent supporter of Uribe, will pledge his support for the reunification of the Liberal Party. The news site said that according to unofficial sources nine of the 28 U Party senators will follow Benedetti.