“Either we change or we die.” The President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, on an official visit to Spain, yesterday made a vehement appeal from the rostrum of the Congress of Deputies to combat the climate crisis, a battle in which he is committed and for which he requested the complicity of ‘ Spain, to lead, from the presidency of the European Union, concrete measures for a technological and political change. “The policy that is based on science is what is called progressive”, he said.
“We have a mission, which is to save humanity”, insisted the Colombian president, who compared himself to “a Don Quixote”, who has learned “to undo the dark”. He said that his message provokes discussion and “the attack of those who do not want change”, with reference to those who attack him in his country for promoting change and against the “deniers” of climate change in general. “Climate change is not a religion, it’s science”, underlined Petro, who also said that, like Cervantes’ character, he has been called crazy.
The Colombian president made his speech from the tribune of the chamber, in front of deputies and senators from all the groups, except for those from Vox, who left the Chamber before his speech began. While the ultra-right was parsimoniously making its way out, the standing chamber applauded Petro, in a long ovation that lasted several minutes. “In 20 years as a parliamentarian, I had never had such applause”, he thanked.
The Colombian leader defended the end of the hydrocarbon industry and changing the energy model of oil and gas to clean energies: “sun, wind and water”. And he marked the July summit between the European Union and the Community of States of Latin America and the Caribbean (CELAC) as a key date.
Petro arrived in Madrid on Tuesday, but the official agenda started yesterday, when he was received with honors at the Royal Palace, as befits a state visit. With his wife, Verónica Alcocer, he arrived at the palace in a Rolls Royce that took them from the El Pardo palace, where they are staying. Kings Felipe and LetÃcia welcomed them in a ceremony attended by the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, and representatives of the main State institutions.
At the Congress, Petro was received by the president, Meritxell Batet, and the president of the Senate, Ander Gil, and greeted the members of the Bureau of the two chambers, the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, deputies and senators and the ministers who attended the event. In the afternoon, the mayor of Madrid, MartÃnez-Almeida, handed him the key to the city, in an act that Vox censured while calling Petro the “maximum representative of narco-dictatorships”.
Today, Petro meets with Sánchez in Moncloa and concludes a visit focused on bilateral issues and on the international agenda, in which the climate crisis has been very present. Spain is the second largest investment partner in Colombia and, according to Colombian diplomatic sources, Petro is very interested in attracting private investment for the energy transition he wants for his country.
