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Gustavo Petro on the campaign trail, photo La Silla Vacía

The red flag was hoisted high above the Lievano Palace in Bogotá on the afternoon of 1 January, announcing the official start of the Gustavo Petro era.

Petro, once a hard-line ultra-left guerrilla militant, has morphed into a populist, centre(ish)-left elected mayor, in charge of Colombia’s capital city.

Until a fortnight ago, Petro had only known life as an opposition politician. He now has the second most important job in the country. Critics complain that he lacks the experience necessary to run a city of 8 million souls, and that he is an ideologue, not an administrator. Supporters respond that he is a principled man with strong beliefs, who has brought together a cabinet of wise heads.

After years of relentlessly attacking those who held the reins of power, Petro has four years to prove he knows what to do now they’re in his hands.

Petro has started his time in office as those on the right fear he intends to carry on. His first address as Mayor was unmistakably of the left. Those that crowded into Bolivar Square to see their leader sworn in, heard how his government will tax the rich, how it will plough the money into public services, providing free education and drinking water for the poor, and how it will levy taxes on motorists to fund cheaper ‘more accessible’ public transport.

In Europe these policies would be called ‘old left’. Since taking office, however, Petro has shown he is equally at home with ‘new left’ ideas. He has borrowed from the modernising left movements that swept through Spain and the UK in the early 2000s.

Petro, like a Colombian Tony Blair or Jose Luis Zapatero, has committed his government to the pursuit of ‘equality’, openly embracing positive discrimination. Marking the sand, Petro in a highly symbolic act appointed women to half his cabinet positions.

Not content to stop there, he has now moved onto the territory of political correctness. Last week Petro set about dismantling centuries old tradition by seeking to end bullfighting in the capital. It was not appropriate for a city in the 21 century to applaud and make a spectacle of violence and death, he argued.

This way of thinking is new for Colombia, a deeply conservative and traditional country. Petro is setting about on a quiet revolution. He hopes to bring about social change, a shift in values, and a re-calibration of Colombian politics. The right and the church have dominated political discourse. Petro wants to present an alternative. As he puts it – socialism and love.

It is no surprise that there are those in Colombian politics who are frightened of Petro, not just because of his politics, but also as a result of what his personal story represents for the future of the country. Petro’s background promises to revolutionise the country even more than do his politics.

Unlike most Colombian politicians, Petro’s blood is not blue. Colombia has tended to be run by an elite, a governing class. Looking at Petro’s family tree you do not see generations of former senators, governors or presidents. If Petro is a success as mayor, his narrative of commoner turned political leader becomes a dangerous precedent for those who currently run the country. Could he encourage power to begin slowly to shift from the governors to the governed?

Petro’s genetic background ensures he is a political outsider. And by appearing to move to centre, Petro is now an outsider within a Colombian left that has marched en masse into the wilderness of untempered socialism. But most interesting will be Petro’s relationship with the national governmenFor now Petro is an independent in a country of consensus. President Santos’ coalition government controls over 90% of the Congress. But the coalition’s reach is felt at all administrative levels. The local and regional elections at the end of October were seen as a major success for Santos.

Of the 32 new governors, sworn in on 1 January, 17 belong to coalition parties, as do over half of the 1,100 new mayors. In some cases – like that of Cali’s new mayor, Rodrigo Guerrero, even candidates elected on non-coalition platforms are also unofficially linked to the government. Semana, Colombia’s intelligent weekly publication, have suggested that never before have the national and regional governments been more closely aligned.

There is nothing necessarily troubling in all this, President Santos’ reforms are the right ones for the country, and he desperately needs local politicians on his side to make the policies a reality, and to deliver his land restitution plan. But such a lack of opposition cannot for long be healthy.

In this context, Petro is almost uniquely positioned to present the country with an alternative prospectus – one that in the future he may choose to put forward as a presidential manifesto.

Even for those instinctively against his way of viewing the world – like the author of this website – Petro should not represent a threat. Colombia desperately needs more outsiders. Opposition is necessary for a participatory and more mature democracy. Petro represents large sections of Colombian society, it’s a good thing for the country that he is heard, and given a chance to govern, even if he fails.

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