“Change” o “continuity”. This Sunday’s second shift is defined in Uruguay based on those slogans summarized in just one word. The teacher Yamandú Orsi wants the small South American country to turn the page hand in hand, again, with the centre-left Broad Front coalition (FA). Alvaro Delgadofrom the ruling National Party (Blancos) calls on the electorate to preserve the path opened by the current center-right president, Luis Lacalle For. The candidates arrive at the runoff in a situation close to a technical tie, according to the main pollsters. “High uncertainty and parity“, assured the portal ‘El Observador’. The suspense is not incompatible with good manners. Despite the open ending, Uruguayans in general avoid confrontations that could lead to violent situations under these circumstances.
Orsi clearly won the first round at the end of last October with the 44% of the votes. Lacalle Pou’s dolphin was 17 points behind. However, since democracy was reestablished in the mid-eighties of the last century, the FA is usually the clear winner of the first round, but then must face whites and another traditional force, the colorados. They unite inertially to stop the arrival of the frentamplistas to the Executive. They did not always succeed, as demonstrated by the cases of Tabaré Vázquez and José Pepe Mujica in 2004, 2010 and 2014. This time, Delgado will also have the support of a minor party, the Constitutionalist. That last support seems to have balanced the dispute to the point that, according to the consulting firm Cifra, the name of Sunday’s winner will be known when the votes are counted until the end. The few undecidedonce again, can be decisive.
But not only them. On the other side of the Río de la Plata, in Argentinaabout 111,000 Uruguayans live there. Although they represent 3% of the electoral roll, Orsi and Delgado need those votes like water. The so-called “Buquebus vote“, due to the company that crosses the river daily and at different times, acquires crucial importance in this scenario. The FA and the Whites have decided to subsidize boat tickets to have that support at the polls. The left It expects to have around 18,000 members, many more than its rival.
Shared moderation
Both Orsi, who has Carolina Cosse, the former mayor of Montevideo, as vice president, and Delgado, tried during the campaign to be consistent with their traditions. Just as the idea of ”change” or “continuity” separates them, the same word has come out of their mouths in proselytizing acts and interventions in the media: “project.” The FA and the whites claim to have a clear program about what they need at this point. a country whose economy will grow 3.2% this year and where poverty is one of the lowest in the region, 9.1%. The deviation or maintenance of the guiding lines of the Lacalle Pou administration will not entail major surprises. If something unites Orsi and Delgado, it is the conviction that transformations, whether they lean more towards the left or its opposite, can never be abrupt. And that’s why rivals also talk about “certainty.”
In their own way, the contenders express two different forms of coalition. The FA, emerged in 1971 and vital in the fight to recover democracy, is an alliance of various left-wing parties that knew how to shelter in a common space the Communist Party and the survivors of the Tupamaros guerrilla, as well as socialists and social Christians. Coexistence learning is unprecedented in Latin America. Delgado, for his part, is the standard-bearer of an emergency coalition: behind him are those who do not want Orsi to become president. “Currently we do not represent parties,” said the ruling party’s standard bearer. The convergence, Delgado stressed, however, must be something more than the allergy to FA. ““We not only come together to win, but come together to govern.”
The Mujica case
The second round was marked by a greater role for former president Pepe Mujica, who, at 89, announced that he had overcome the lethal challenge of esophageal cancer. In October he came out to support Orsi with a trembling voice. The last few hours accidentally had him at the center of the scene. Known for his economic asceticism and a frugal life on the outskirts of Montevideo, Mujica, the Uruguayan champion of anti-consumerism, attacked Lacalle Pou for having spent $50,000 on a motorcycle, and two trucks “to the fart (without use),” flagrant indications, in his opinion, of the lack of concern for those who have the least in Uruguay. “I put more than half of my salary into the Juntos (plan), and I have receipts. I gave it more than half a million dollars,” he recalled about the fate of what he had earned during his years as president. And, in an unusual way for a culture of moderation, he said about wasteful leaders. “They are miserable. These are the fathers of the country.” And he in turn accused the current Government of leaving a considerable “social debt.”
Given the small commotion for having talked about a motorcycle and two trucks (material evidence of excess), the former insurgent turned around. “I lost my tongue due to fever (anger) and I apologize to the Uruguayan people. Not because of the content, I subscribe to the content. For the shapes. This is not the time to say that.” The “forms” to which Mujica alluded seem to be crucial in this country with 3.4 million people eligible to vote.
