No taxation without representation

Following the downfall of the budget in Congress, the government of President Gustavo Petro has declared an economic emergency. The Minister of Finance, Germán Ávila, announced that through this mechanism the government intends to establish tax measures by decree in order to compensate for the imbalance in the national budget. The government seeks to raise more than 16 trillion pesos in taxes without the approval of the legislative branch. In doing so, the president has forgotten one of the fundamental principles of liberal democracies: without representation, there can be no taxation. What is an economic emergency? Why is it being used? Is its declaration justified?

The economic emergency is a mechanism established in the Constitution that allows the government to issue decrees with the force of law in order to protect the national economy when extraordinary, external, and unforeseen circumstances arise that may affect it. The clearest example of this was COVID-19. The pandemic was an exceptional, sudden, and unexpected event in which the government used the economic emergency to mitigate its negative effects. Measures like these are essential in times of genuine crisis, as they allow governments to respond effectively to situations that require swift action. However, the economic emergency is a dangerous tool if used improperly. What was conceived as a practical way to overcome extreme and unforeseen circumstances can easily become an excuse to bypass the separation of powers and grant extraordinary authority to the executive.

Petro justifies the emergency by arguing that Congress’s refusal to approve his budget constitutes an extraordinary event that will directly affect the national economy. He also claims that factors such as the rise in international risk premiums, increased military spending due to the ELN offensive, and fluctuations in oil prices demonstrate an inherently unpredictable context. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is neither extraordinary nor unforeseen for Congress to reject the budget of a spendthrift government. The rise in risk premiums and the deterioration of security conditions have been caused largely by the government’s own poor management, and fluctuations in oil prices can hardly be considered extraordinary events. It is likely for all these reasons that the president waited until the judicial recess to declare the emergency. The government knows that the weak justification for this measure will lead the courts to strike it down once they return from recess.

This is merely the latest attempt by Petro to govern like an emperor rather than a president. Faced with an unbalanced budget, the government chooses not to cut spending but instead to declare an economic emergency in order to spend even more. This is not new: the government has already broken the fiscal rule, and the deficit has reached levels similar to those seen during the worst moments of the pandemic. But all of this is a symptom of a single disease. The government has no intention of reducing spending, especially in an election year. The president has made it clear that he involves himself in politics even during active campaigns, and there is a real risk that mounting debt and an inflated budget could end up benefiting the Pacto Histórico’s 2026 electoral campaign.

The economic emergency is not a mechanism meant to satisfy the political whims of any government. It is the ultimate safety valve, reserved for truly exceptional circumstances. Using it because the government failed to pass a budget, behaved irresponsibly in fiscal terms, or refuses to reduce spending in an election year is a perverse distortion of its original purpose. Declaring it when constitutional requirements are not met and during a period of judicial recess amounts to an attempt to impose illegitimate taxes not approved by Congress and not subject to judicial oversight. Without these powers in the process, especially Congress, there is no representation, and therefore no legitimate taxation. Just as the American colonists demanded of the British Crown in the eighteenth century, today Colombians must say to Petro: No taxation without representation.