The president stated that it is up to the citizens to decide when the workday should end, or whether overtime should be paid for work beyond the established hours. “That is what we are proposing: that you vote for your rights and that we mark them in blood on the marble (…) What we want is for the people, in the end, to vote for the people and for the people to be power,” he said.

Petro also considered that voting in favor of the popular consultation means opening the avenues of democracy and closing the alleys of violence. “The Senate holds the key, and I’m not begging you, because I know what will happen if you don’t. But I do ask you, as a patriot and as head of state: don’t turn your back on your people, reconcile with your people, because the reason for a representative in Congress is to obey the people, not the mafia, not the party boss, not greed,” he stated.

The president urged citizens to march on May 1st, when he will personally present the questionnaire for the referendum he is promoting to the Senate. “We have to go out and show if it’s true that the people of Colombia want the referendum, as the polls say. It’s our acid test, if we truly want to change the history of Colombia,” he said.

Petro also announced that he would push for a referendum in response to the collapse of the labor reform by the Senate’s Seventh Committee on March 18th.

Last Tuesday, the Ministers of the Interior, Armando Benedetti, and Labor, Antonio Sanguino, publicly released the 12 questions for the referendum. The referendum must be approved by the Senate Plenary, which has one month to decide on the matter.

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