President Luis Lacalle Pou see the vote away from the social security reform he under the parameters that he had imposed on the government coalition in the Chamber of Deputieshand in hand with a strong dissent from his partner, Town meeting.
The force led by Guido Manini Rios He is far from leaving his high-sounding speeches regarding the star project of the Executive, the central legacy of a reformist agenda that, for the moment, has not been fully implemented.
Cabildo Abierto announced to the letter in January, long before the Chamber of Deputies began the formal processes to analyze the initiative, that it would not vote on it as it came from Senate.
Since then his intransigence has been on the rise, with several nods to the opponent broad front (FA) -which promised to repeal several articles if it is approved and in case of returning to power-, generating greater discontent among the majority sector of the coalition, the National Party.
In mid-February, President Lacalle Pou was categorical: the social security reform must be approved on March 31, not one more day. But unlike the Senate, where the Executive’s agenda was fulfilled without problems and the text was not modified, the special commission of Deputies advances at a lethargic pace.
Open Town Hall and the threat of a postponement until the second semester
Cabildo Abierto maintains its claim on the points to be modified from the original social security reform project: lowering the years for calculating the replacement rate is less (from 25 to 15 years), plus exceptions for the minimum age of retirement, exclusion from Notary Box and the ban on AFAP to invest their funds abroad.
As part of your attrition strategydemanded that the government delegates who went before the special commission to explain the project, send in writing various questions, delaying the procedure.
He has clung to this to suggest the need for a postponement of the debate in plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies, which was to take place at the end of the month.
The lobbying legislator Martin Sodano He even drafted a request for an extension of the commission’s operation until August, after negotiating the support of the Broad Front for that motion, according to El Observador.
The request did not see the light of day and the National Party reacted quickly by calling a extraordinary session of the Chamber of Deputies for Wednesday 29. The objective is to show that, if necessary, the required debate time will be created to comply with the schedule desired by Luis Lacalle Pou.
Despite the contingency plan, the president’s goal is getting further and further away. There are ten days to iron out rough edges that have been going on for months with the Cabildo Abierto. These are negotiations that, moreover, put the delicate sustainability of the reform itself at risk, as explained by its editor Rodolfo Saldaín.
Introducing changes to the replacement formula, the main point questioned by CA, would affect all the fiscal stability of the new pension system. A change of this magnitude would also delay political times because the text would have to return to the Senate.
The most optimistic prognoses are based on satisfying Manini Ríos’ force with other concessions, possibly limiting foreign investments by the AFAP, allowing the president to enact his flagship reform after the Tourism Week.
Skeptics fear longer times and even deeper wear and tear within a coalition where the electoral pace is gaining ground.
Source: Ambito
