Colombian Interior Minister Fabio Valencia denied on Thursday that the
coalition is in crisis after coalition party De la U threatened to pull
the plug on the re-election of President Alvaro Uribe if the Minister
does not step down.
“Obviously there were some accidents of politics in Congress. But it seems to me that the coalition is not broken and there is a spirit… to review the situation,” the minister told local media.
Supporters of Uribe on Tuesday said the referendum is “dead” after an
unexpected breach of a pact between the government and Congress about
who will preside over the Senate and House in the coming year.
Against the will of the government, both the House and the Senate
on Monday elected different presidents than those who were agreed upon in a deal made at
the beginning of Uribe’s second term.
The Partido de la U feels betrayed that Cambio Radical prevented a De
la U representative becoming president of the House of Representatives. De la U threatened to stop supporting the re-election referendum if Valencia did not step down, but the Minister is not alarmed.
“Everything is going to be fine because I see that Congress is always acting
in the best interests of the country,” Valencia said regarding the
referendum required to re-elect Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
The
party also criticizes Valencia of having
mishandled the Congressional votes on the re-election referendum. The Partido de la U has demanded the resignation of Valencia, which the Minister has refused.