President Gustavo Petro suffered a heavy defeat this Tuesday in the Congress of the Republic, which shows the government’s lack of control over Parliament, nine months before the end of his mandate. The economic committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives defeated tax reform and left the nation’s general budget for 2026 defunded by 16.3 trillion pesos. The bill, which sought to increase consumption taxes on alcoholic beverages and tobacco, tax assets exceeding P2.6 billion, and increase the tax burden on companies in the financial and energy sectors, among other measures, faced fierce political opposition.
The majority of the fourth Senate committee, the same one that approved Petro’s labor reform a few months ago, voted against the tax reform and definitively abandoned it, with 9 votes for no and only 4, the most pro-government, for yes. Several senators who supported the president in other initiatives, such as Afro-Colombian leader Paulino Riascos or indigenous senator Richard Fuelantala, this time voted against. The remaining three committees did not vote, because congressional regulations establish that this type of reform requires approval of all four committees. If we deny it, we are sunk. Minutes after learning the news, the president criticized what happened with a strong message on his social networks. “It is nothing other than the development of political hatred above the national interest,” he declared in reference to the failure of his project.
Interior Minister Armando Benedetti, who did not attend the vote in Congress, also regretted the sinking. “The stranded financing law equals bonds, high risk and lack of ability to pay foreign debt, equals more economic crisis. And then the government’s social policy will be affected by the very high interest on the debt. And all because a sector of Congress votes with its guts.” Senators and government-related representatives joined in the criticism against the industry that sunk the bill. Jorge Hernán Bastidas, spokesperson for the reform, criticized the fact that his colleagues approved the budget, but denied the law that sought the necessary resources to comply with it. “Congress cannot pass an underfunded budget and then refuse to deliberate on the resources needed to cover it. »
On the other hand, opposition MPs celebrated the failure of the project as a great victory against the president. Senator and conservative presidential candidate Efraín Cepeda, a staunch critic of the initiative, assured that the file avoids the creation of new taxes for the poorest classes at Christmas. “We defeated the Petro government’s tax reform despite maneuvers aimed at blocking the debate. They intended to impose it by force,” he declared as he left the premises. Cepeda warned of the risks that the president decides to implement it by decree, bypassing the legislative power: “Be careful: now they want to open the door to an economic emergency to try to pass the same reform by decree. It would be an abuse of power and a blow to democratic rules. We are not going to allow the government to finance politics with the pockets of Colombians.” For now, despite rumors, the president has not confirmed the declaration of economic emergency, although his Finance Minister, Germán Ávila, said he was not ruling out any tool.
The failure of tax reform is neither the first nor the last setback that the government suffered this Tuesday in Congress. A few minutes earlier, the first committee of the Senate refused for the third time in a row to discuss the project that seeks to save the Ministry of Equality, the banner of the president and which has until July to be recreated, since the Constitutional Court deemed unconstitutional the initial law that gave it life, but granted a deadline to the Government to prevent its disappearance. Representative Alirio Uribe, of the ruling Historic Pact, questioned the decision of his Senate colleagues not to form a quorum and thus avoid discussion. “Congress is letting the country down (…) and there is only one week left before the legislative recess,” he warned.
And soon after, the Seventh Senate Committee refused to discuss health care reform. After several hours during which the opposition delayed the debate, the president of the legislative cell, the liberal and opposition Miguel Ángel Pinto, decided to adjourn the session without even having started the debate. The decision aroused the anger of Minister Benedetti, who unsuccessfully bet all his negotiating power on this project, the most important for Petro: “April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December… and the health reform, during all these months, did not advance in the Seventh Commission. The Seventh Commission sucked up the government, they despised the sick and they helped the EPS to get the money.” His Health colleague, Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo, also criticized the lack of debate. “While you delay, millions of Colombians remain stuck in a system that does not guarantee timely care, nor the delivery of medicines, nor a solid hospital network, nor decent conditions for health workers. Health is not a political prize nor a matter to defend privileges. It is a right”, wrote the minister before opening the session in Congress.
Added to these three defeats is the fact that agrarian jurisdiction, another of the president’s flagship projects, has not progressed in the plenary session of the House of Representatives or the Senate for months. With 90 days until the general election, lawmakers’ priorities are increasingly shifting toward campaign tours and meetings, and less toward debates at the Capitol. Time is passing and what little convincing power the government has in Congress is running out.
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