No more Uribe!

The Constitutional Court has decided not to accept the planned referendum that sought to legalise a second reelection of president Uribe. This, for once, is positive news from those upper circles: The juridical system has shown its independence. It has done so in spite of Uribe's attempts to place his own people in central positions in the juridical system. The most recent of these was precisely the president of the Constitutional Court, who came from a post as juridical secretary — to the president! He was one of the two in the 7-2 vote today.

This is a relief, as waiting for the court decision has paralysed the political discussion, so much more important for the election.

There are no signs of unrest, or of attempts to ignore the court decision. I had feared that this decision possibly could provoke a state of emergency or some other radical abuse of presidential power. For many months now, Uribe has been talking about the "state of opinion" as an expression of popular will, and as such more important than the "constitutional state" (Rechtsstaat). Some have interpreted this as an ideological preparation of a coup d'état, an auto-coup. In his first comment on the court decision, however, Uribe says that though popular will is most important, it must also respect the constitution ...

Let's hope that Uribe too, for once, will respect the constitution.