In a recent interview broadcast on YouTube, the economist and former Minister of Finance José Manuel Restrepo has detailed the keys to his leap into electoral politics as a candidate for the vice presidency of Colombia in 2026. His intervention, focused on the country’s economic future and the role of his ticket, reveals a strategy based on technical solvency and the search for consensus in a polarized environment.
Restrepo, who accompanies the presidential race alongside lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella, asserts his independent profile and his experience in public administration as the main added value to the candidacy. The former minister insists that his role is not to add votes from partisan structures, but to contribute “confidence, rigor and stability” in a moment he defines as critical for the country.
A ROLE CENTERED ON THE ECONOMY AND INTERNATIONAL CREDIBILITY
During the interview, Restrepo emphasizes that his eventual vice presidency would be oriented toward strengthening Colombia’s economic credibility and acting as a link with international actors.
A project backed in Spain by criminal lawyer Juan Gonzalo Ospina, who in the interview insisted on Colombia’s need to regain the confidence of investors and international bodies, in a context where the economy appears as one of the central axes of the electoral debate. Ospina’s role as head of Abelardo’s European campaign is not by chance in a candidacy where “the tiger” boasts of surrounding himself with the best managers capable of “building bridges” in contexts of crisis and political fragmentation.
UNITY IN THE FACE OF POLARIZATION
One of the most repeated messages in the conversation on the influencer Javi Oliveira‘s channel—with 680,000 subscribers—is the need to overcome political division. Restrepo presents his incorporation into the candidacy as a bet on moderation within an ideological space that seeks to broaden.
His discourse, in the heat of the hundreds of comments reflected during the interview and afterwards, fits the Colombian political moment, where different forces try to attract the center voter in elections that are especially open and fragmented.
THE CONCEPT OF “COUNTRY OF MIRACLES”
Among the most striking elements of the interview is the defense of the concept of “país milagro,” an idea shared with De la Espriella that points to an economic transformation based on growth, investment and institutional confidence.
As he has explained in other contexts, this approach was key to accepting the proposal to be part of the candidacy, together with the need to build national unity in a delicate moment.
AN UNUSUAL CANDIDACY
The presence of Restrepo on the vice-presidential ticket reinforces the technical profile of a candidacy led by a political outsider. His arrival, furthermore, has been interpreted as an attempt to broaden the electoral base toward more moderate sectors and to bring economic credibility to the project.
The interview confirms the stance of the vice-presidential candidate who seeks to differentiate himself from political noise through a technical and results-oriented discourse. However, his success will depend on his ability to translate that profile to an electorate that, in Colombia, remains deeply marked by ideological polarization.
With the 2026 elections on the horizon, his figure emerges as one of the key pieces in the recomposition of the political map, especially within the space of the right and the reformist center.
