Just to prove that its not just US politicians who are delusional really, really, optimistic, I give you Rafeal Pardo of Colombia’s Liberal Party: “The Liberal Party is going to the second round and is going to win the election.”1
It should be noted for the non-Colombianist in the audience that Pardo has consistently been polling right around 5%.
Granted, if one is running one has to say that one is going to win, but Pardo’s chances of winning the Colombian presidency are only slightly better than mine.
The above was in the context of an interview with El Tiempo (‘No hay ninguna posibilidad de que no vayamos a la primera vuelta’: Rafael Pardo) in which has said that is no chance that the PL would bow out of the first round and seek an alliance with another candidate.
Interestingly enough. the candidate that the story suggests would be the target of such an alliance would be Juan Manuel Santos of La U, the main uribista candidate in the race, not an opposition candidate. Indeed, the interview suggests that PL leader and ex-president César Gaviria met with Pardo and suggested such an alliance (Pardo disputes that interpretation of events in his response).
On the one hand, given that Santos and many members of La U have a PL background would suggest that such an alliance would not be unreasonable, but on the other the PL has been a key part of the opposition during the eight years of Uribe. Indeed, in the interview Pardo notes that Santos “represents the continuation of Uribe and all that is liberalism has been opposed to: the false positives, the wiretaps” etc.
- My translation of “El liberalismo va a estar en segunda vuelta y va a ganar las elecciones.” [↩]
April 18th, 2024 at 3:34 pm
Sounds like he’s got Joementum.
April 18th, 2024 at 3:45 pm
That sounds about right