Colombian coalition party Partido de La U wants the government to oust
members of coalition partner Cambio Radical from positions within the
government and give these positions to De La U members.
De la U is angry with Cambio Radical after the latter decided not to allow Partido de la U Representative Miguel Amin to assume the presidency of the House of Representatives and voted for Edgar Gomez (Convergencia Ciudadana), while seeing their own Senator, Javier Caceres, assume the presidency of the Senate.
According to Partido de la U leader Luis Carlos Restrepo, Cambio Radical has now turned into an opposition party and has no right to claim administration positions that are meant for members of the governing coalition.
Restrepo asked Interior and Justice Minister Fabio Valencia Cossio to put members of De la U, the most loyal of supporters of President Alvaro Uribe within the coalition, to be granted the positions now occupied by Cambio Radical.
Earlier this week, De la U demanded Valencia Cossio to step down, accusing him of mishandling the process that is to lead to a re-election of Uribe, but is under a lot of pressure. Many supporters of the referendum consider the possibility for Uribe to be re-elected close to non-existent.
Also within the Partido de la U tensions have arose. Weeks ago, Restrepo nearly lost his job after he wanted the former House president to be dismissed without consulting his party and Thursday, the party clashed with Senator Armando Benedetti, because the senator had been using Twitter to report on an internal crisis meeting while the meeting was going on.