The Special Commission of the Chamber of Deputies suspended the debate until April 10, after the strong ultimatum by the leader of Open Town Hall (CA), Guido Manini Rioswho warned that his party would not vote today on the social security reform project in Uruguay, and that if there is no agreement “everything is over”.
In the run-up to the committee meeting there was optimism: with the extension won by CA, the nationalist deputies hoped to be able to vote, at least, on the Articles that have unanimous approval of the coalition and, thus, at least advance in some way with the “original plan” for the pillar project of the government’s reformist agenda.
However, with the legislators ready at the gates of the compound, Manini Ríos was clear: “We are not going to vote today, I hope they do not call to vote because the votes will not be“. Right there the hopes of the National Party (NP) in a new setback for its, for now, partners, who will not endorse “any article” of the pension reform project under current conditions.
This forced the legislators of the commission to extend the fourth intermission —called to organize rules in view of the possible vote on the article— until April 10, once the Tourism Week.
The coalition, more fragile than ever
The refusal of the Cabildo Abierto to partially vote on the project was not the worst news of the last minutes for the president Luis Lacalle Pou and a political stability that seems less and less. Because Manini Ríos also assured that “If there is no agreement today, it’s all over”.
“Is that better than having one more month? We are talking about a law whose effects are going to be in ten years, are we going to die because it takes another month?”, he pointed out in dialogue with the program In perspective.
The senator and former head of the Army also insists that the two points that CA demands as conditions —the authorization for the AFAPs to invest abroad and the modification of the period contemplated for calculating the retirement salary— be treated as a separate law .
But there is one point in particular with which the lobbyists are upset and it is, surprisingly, the bargaining chip offered by the government: the legislative projects. For Manini Ríos, in recent months the path has been given to projects from his party that were “cajoneados months and months” in a kind of sign of “concessions”, which have not been such. Such is the case of the reparation law for victims of the guerrilla —approved on Wednesday in the Constitution Commission— and the home prison law for people over 65 years of age, which will have priority treatment in the Senate.
“Yes to you they are denying him every day or even worse, they ignore it and after six months they dust it off and approve it as a separate project as proposed by another, this creates an environment that… If that is the way to act, on this issue, since we do not agree I agree with this, with this and with this we are not going to give in“said the lobbyist leader.
In addition, he directly targeted the members of the coalition who were upset with the Cabildo Abierto voting alongside the Broad Front (FA) a extension to deal with the social security reform: “It seems that there are people who are horrified when CA votes with the FA, but they were not horrified when the PN voted with the FA for the concession of airports for 50 years; or when the PN voted with the FA does not restructure the debt. That does not horrify them, it does horrify if CA votes for an extension of days, which apart is for the sake of not ending the day today, it is to give oxygen to these conversations and that there is a social security law ” .
Source: Ambito
