Colombia’s president Gustavo Petro said that his majority coalition in congress has fallen apart following reports that he asked his cabinet to resign, throwing the fate of his eight-month-old government into question.
Petro, a former guerrilla member and Colombia’s first leftwing president, wrote on Twitter late on Tuesday night that “the political coalition agreed as a majority has ended today due to decisions of some party presidents”.
“Such a situation leads us to a rethinking of the government,” he added.
The announcement came after leaders of three traditional parties in his centre-left coalition announced that they would force members to vote against the president’s controversial health reform bill, which seeks to expand the role of the state in providing healthcare.
In a dual legislative blow on Tuesday, a component of Petro’s development plan was also removed that would have allowed the government to buy land for farmers in order to implement a peace deal reached in 2016 by a previous administration with leftist rebels.
In a speech earlier on Tuesday night, Petro raised the idea of installing “a government of emergency, given that congress wasn’t capable of approving some simple articles”. He added that such an administration would not be a government by decree, and officials would “work hard, day and night”.
Shortly before his announcement that the governing coalition had ended, Petro requested the resignations of all 18 of his cabinet ministers, according to two sources in the government. Local media reports suggested that a cabinet reshuffle was imminent.
A former member of the M-19 leftist guerrilla group, Petro was elected last summer promising widespread reforms to the country’s longstanding conservative economic orthodoxy. He was supported by a coalition in congress made up of traditional centrist parties and others from the left alongside his own Historic Pact party.
Since then, he signed progressive tax legislation but other landmark reforms have proven challenging, particularly the health plan, which members of his own cabinet have bristled against. His first education minister, Alejandro Gaviria, a respected former health minister, criticised the reform plan and resigned in February.
Petro’s plans to expand the government’s role in pensions provision and improve workers’ rights have also drawn opposition from the country’s business community.
The loss of a congressional majority will further imperil Petro’s ability to govern. In February, as his health reform began to stutter, he called on his supporters to “rise up” against elites and rally in Bogotá, the capital. The turnout to demonstrations was muted.
Sergio Guzmán, director of Colombia Risk Analysis, said that Petro’s sweeping announcements on Tuesday drew from radical tendencies that would impede his administration going forward.
“Petro is making sure that instead of being the first of many leftwing presidents in Colombia, he will be the only one,” Guzmán said.
