Paloma Valencia opens the door to right-wing consultation if the Democratic Center supports her

The consolidation of a right-wing alliance for the presidential elections in Colombia is taking shape. A group of six candidates, gathered this week to define a single candidate during a consultation in March, invited this Sunday a centerpiece that they were missing: Paloma Valencia, the bet of the Democratic Center, the party of former president Álvaro Uribe. They did it after meeting her, and announced it via a message on X which they replied simultaneously. The Uribista leader was open to joining the coalition, but stressed that she needed to get the support of her community. “I met with the members of La Gran Consulta por Colombia and I appreciate their invitation and their effort for unity. Let’s talk with the members of our party to make a decision that the great team of the Democratic Center is happy and encouraged about,” he said in X.

The right-wing alliance, known as the Great Consultation for Colombia, arose from conversations between five moderate leaders: David Luna, a former Cambio Radical senator; Aníbal Gaviria, former governor of Antioquia; Juan Daniel Oviedo, former director of the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE); Juan Manuel Galán, director of New Liberalism; and Mauricio Cárdenas, former finance minister under the government of Juan Manuel Santos. For months, they proclaimed the need to unite in a broad alliance to take on Iván Cepeda, the candidate of left-wing President Gustavo Petro. Several of them pointed out that the red line was Abelardo de la Espriella, a far-right lawyer leading the opposition polls.

On Wednesday, the alliance added Vicky Dávila, a far-right communicator who ran the magazine Week. This is an important addition: even if the candidate has lost her strength in recent months, she has more voting intentions than the others (around four points, against one, according to some recent polls). Likewise, he ensures the veto of De la Espriella: Dávila, who weakened as the lawyer rose in the polls, attacked him repeatedly and accused him of having links to illicit activities.

The five most moderate deputies and the extreme right announced the invitation to Valencia through the same X-shaped message to which each responded in their story at eleven in the morning. “We met with presidential candidate Paloma Valencia. She expressed her interest in participating in this consultation on March 8, 2026. After a frank conversation, in a spirit of unity and determination for the country, we welcome her to this team,” we can read in the text. The only one to have opted for a different formulation was Juan Manuel Galán, of New Liberalism: “Welcome, Paloma Valencia, to La Gran Consulta. Your participation strengthens democratic dialogue and enriches this space of collective construction.”

The incorporation of Valencia, if finalized, would consolidate the alliance as an option compared to De la Espriella, who announced that he would not participate in any consultations. The polls gave more than 2% of voting intentions to Valencia, but this does not mean that his selection is less because they reflected the situation before becoming the sacred party of his party, the most voted on the right. Its political leader, former President Uribe, is the undisputed leader of the Colombian right and enjoys great popularity. He was elected president twice (2002 and 2006), then he promoted two other candidates to the presidency (2010 and 2018), and in 2014 he managed to advance his candidate to the second round.

The Uribist leader is currently a senator and one of the former president’s squires. She was elected to the Senate in 2014 and has remained there ever since. A lawyer and heir to a conservative lineage that included her grandfather, former president Guillermo León Valencia (1962-1966), she was one of the most visible right-wing deputies of the last decade. Compared to his rivals in the Democratic Center process, María Fernanda Cabal and Paola Holguín, he represents the less radical wing of Uribism. “I only recognize as enemies those who are violent,” Valencia said, a notable contrast to that of his colleagues and opponents. In recent weeks it has coincided with the five original candidates of the Great Consultation for Colombia in a new strategy aimed at reducing the volume of the broadcast antipetrism and seek a broader discourse than opposition to the president.

The senator did not close the door to a rapprochement with De la Espriella, whom former President Uribe met to evaluate a unity process. However, this option would be excluded if his party approves its integration into the Great Consultation for Colombia. From this alliance could emerge a candidate with the possibility of competing with De la Espriella for passage to the second round which, for the moment, seems to be in the hands of the far-right lawyer. If successful, they would have more opportunities to add center vocals to compete with Cepeda.