The social security reform which was approved at the end of April in Uruguay seems to have brought, with Monday’s newspaper, more controversies on the political-electoral level than those that occurred during its discussion. Thus, the decision of PIT-CNT to advance in a plebiscite that modifies the Constitution regarding pension matters, it opened a dispute, both internal to the Broad Front (FA) as between the left opposition and the government coalition.
Next week the meeting of signatures will begin to achieve the popular consultation that the PIT-CNT against social security. The union central did not care much about the multiple reviews received to this initiative which, among its main points, proposes eliminating AFAP and pension savings; put a cap on the retirement age and years of contributions; and tie retirement to the minimum wage. The proposal is moving forward and, in fact, the 45% of the population would be inclined to accompany her, according to a Cifra survey.
The problem – or, rather, another of the problems – is the political blow that is hitting, above all, within the Frente Amplio, as October approaches and, with it, the countdown of the last year prior to the general elections. that will define who will be the successor of Luis Lacalle Pou in the presidency of Uruguay.
On this issue, the FA has the most to lose, in the context of seeking to recover the government. The main figures of the left coalition have already shown themselves against the path chosen by the PIT-CNT; Although they share the opinion that it is necessary to carry out measures on the reform of the social security of the Multicolor Coalition, The front-line leaders understand that the parliamentary route would have been a more correct decision.
However, the open rejection of the union center can strain ties with one of its main allies at the time of going to the polls, so the debate settled on fenteamplism, which now seeks to define the scope of freedom of action for militants and leaders in this scenario.
The internal of the Frente Amplio for the plebiscite
He open and direct support It is more than ruled out. Not only because of the multiple comments questioning the PIT-CNT’s decision to go for the plebiscite against the social security reform – the former president Jose Mujica was the last to criticize this initiative publicly, for example—but because of the electoral cost it would have. This was already admitted by the president of the FA himself, Fernando Pereira, who said that lining up behind the popular consultation is a “political risk” ahead of the 2024 elections.
Instead, the coalition leadership decided to promote leeway: let each sector choose how to position itself regarding the plebiscite. The dilemma is, in the context of that freedom of action, what can and cannot be done in the headquarters and committees. In short, set rules of the game or general limits so that, in the end, we do not stop responding as a block.
For this, the FA created a special commission that prepares a document with the main guidelines, and that the Political Table He hopes to be able to study starting next Monday.
However, the positions in the different parties that make up the coalition are divided and, in a certain way, seem to embody the internal position of the opposition in which the final candidate for the lists will be defined. On the one hand, the sectors that reject the path proposed by the PIT-CNT look for one “strict neutrality” of the common spaces, so as not to mix the issue of the plebiscite with the structure of the coalition – again, trying to avoid the political cost that such an extremist measure could represent in electoral terms. In this first group is the Popular Participation Movement (MPP) that leads to the mayor of cannelloni and favorite in preliminary polls, Yamandu Orsi, as an eventual pre-candidate.
The sectors that support the senator’s pre-candidacy Mario Bergara They also maintain a similar position.
On the opposite side of the left coalition is the Socialist Party, that will define its position today but with an advanced premise: to go out in force in favor of the plebiscite. His idea of freedom of action, meanwhile, is not limited and includes the committees and the possibility of them gathering signatures for the popular consultation. He Communist Party, main party support behind the mayor of Montevideo, Carolina Cosse, Meanwhile, this Sunday he will decide whether or not to alienate himself behind the reform promoted by the PIT-CNT, as his position regarding the freedom of action of the Broad Front. The space candidate has already announced that she will abide by what the coalition decides, without giving a personal opinion on the matter.
Beyond the fact that positions still need to be decided, the positional map of the eventual pre-candidates of the Wide Front It seems to begin to be drawn based on the plebiscite: on the one hand, with a more moderate—and public—position, Orsi and Bergara; and, on the other, without giving too many definitions—as with his own candidacy in the internal race for the presidential candidacy—Cosse.
Frente Amplio Carolina Cosse Montevideo Yamandú Orsi Canelones
Photo: @CosseCarolina
The plebiscite, the ruling party’s workhorse to criticize the FA
Meanwhile, the eventual candidate for National Party (PN) who is positioned as a favorite in previous polls, and current secretary of the Presidency, Álvaro Delgado, chose criticism of the lack of definition of the FA to begin to outline the scenario of electoral confrontation.
In that sense, during an event of the list 404 Yesterday, he took aim directly at Orsi, Cosse and Bergara by pointing out that it would be “good” for the FA to “start saying what it is going to do” regarding the plebiscite of the PIT-CNT. Along the same lines, he criticized the freedom of action that the left-wing coalition decided on because “political parties, if they aspire to be a government, they can’t wash their hands and look to the side to look good based on the internal; not to play because some pre-candidate is with one and another pre-candidate is with another.”
According to Delgado, if the three want to be pre-candidates for the opposition “they are going to have to say what they are going to do with the plebiscite”, if “they vote for or against”, so that “we all know, when we vote, the consequences of our vote”.
The criticism of the possible nationalist pre-candidate finds in the government’s multiple questions about the reform sought by the union center a good basis on which to begin building its electoral speech, despite the fact that its participation in the internal PN has not yet been definitively confirmed. . In any case, the chosen tone begins to directly confront those who may be its direct adversaries in October 2024and this is also understood by the Frente Amplio.
In this regard, the response of Cosse—the Broad Front precandidate who seems, in turn, to have chosen the more confrontational stance— it didn’t take long to arrive: “From the ruling party, as always, they are in a hurry. Now a deep discussion is taking place in the FA and in the ruling party they are saying, as always, nonsense. “I’m not going to join that, I’m going to let my teammates discuss and abide by what the FA defines,” he concluded.
Source: Ambito
