The candidate of the Broad Front Yamandú Orsideclined the invitation extended by his competitor Independent Party and former minister of Labor and Social Security (MTSS), Pablo Mieresto join a joint declaration against the social security plebiscite promoted by the PIT-CNT. “My position on the plebiscite is public knowledge, but I could hardly accept an invitation that, in essence, leaves unchanged a law that the Frente Amplio does not share,” he said.
He plebiscite against social security reform This is one of the points that generates the most discord in the face of the electoral campaign, but not only between the government and political and economic analysts – due to the effects that the approval of the constitutional reform in pension matters may have on public accounts – but also between and within parties. In this sense, the candidates of the coalition united in a joint declaration against the initiative of the union center, and pressured for Orsi He also joined in, knowing the differences that exist within the opposition – and perhaps even within the presidential formula – regarding the popular consultation.
Although the Broad Front ratified the “freedom of action” for all its sectors before the plebiscite, neither the presidential candidate nor the vice presidential candidate, Carolina Cosse, They were open about their personal position. But now, Orsi has responded with a letter to Mieres’ invitation to sign the joint declaration.
What does Orsi’s letter say?
In a printed but hand-signed text, Orsi made public his negative response to Mieres’ invitation, and explained the reasons behind his decision.
“I firmly believe in the dialogue permanent among all parties as a way of strengthening the democratic coexistence, But I also believe that this dialogue, to be genuine and fruitful, must be guided by frankness and removed from the immediate interests of an electoral campaign,” he said first of all.
“My position and that of my political force does not agree with the pension system reform law approved by this coalition government, which you are also a part of,” he continued, referring directly to the former head of the MTSS; and insisted that the program of the eventual Frente Amplio government “proposes to review this law through a social dialogue that genuinely listens to the voices of the different actors in the system.”
“My position on the plebiscite is public knowledge, but I could hardly accept an invitation that, in essence, leaves unchanged a law that the Broad Front does not share,” he concluded, leaving no room for doubt.
The text of the declaration against the plebiscite
The first point of the text signed by the candidates of the governing coalition states that it is “absolutely inconvenient that the retirement age and the minimum years of service required to access the common retirement cause be fixed in the Constitution of the Republic“.
“Such parameters will necessarily have to be modified over time due to demographic factors, technological innovations, transformations in the labour market and changes in customs,” it says.
In fact, the rigidity of the system that its introduction into the Constitution would mean is one of the main criticisms, especially after the data of the 2023 Census which gave an account of the population aging that is already being experienced Uruguay.
This was expressly stated in point number two of the text, which also added that “the proportion of older adults in the population will continue to increase, which will force active workers to make recent contributions to social security”; therefore “the elimination and prohibition of individual savings systems” is “especially inadvisable”.
Likewise, for the coalition candidates, “it is particularly wrong to equate the minimum retirement with the Minimum salary National (SMN) “because, as has happened in the past, governments will seek to keep the level of MN low in order to contain the increase in public spending, generating a distortion in the labour market and becoming an irrelevant parameter for setting wages.”
In point four, they also stressed that the initiative “will require substantial increases in the transfers to the retirement and pension system for its financing with the consequent increase in taxes.” In particular, taxes and contributionswhich will have to be paid by the Uruguayan population as a whole.
“This situation consolidates the existing inequality because the poverty In our country, it is concentrated in children and adolescents and because youth unemployment is three times higher than the average of the population,” the text stated, referring to the high levels of child poverty in the country.
Finally, he stresses that the proposal also raises the “confiscation of savings of hundreds of thousands of citizens, which would seriously affect the international credibility “achieved” by Uruguay during decades.
Source: Ambito
