General’s intention Guido Manini Rios From being the architect of a great national agreement on central issues for the country, this Friday he added a new and great stumbling block. The general secretary of the Colorado Party, Julio Maria Sanguinetti, does not see much sense in the proposal Cabildo Abierto is trying to promote among all political parties.
Sanguinetti received Manini at his home in Punta Carretas to officially listen to the senator’s idea of trying to build a space for dialogue and institutional understanding on major national issues.
In dialogue with The Observer Already on account of an organic pronouncement by the National Executive Committee (CEN), the former president advanced a couple of “comments” that he already left to his interlocutor. In particular, regarding Manini’s proposal to recreate a National Program Agreement. The name recalls the organism of the same name (the Conapro), which functioned between September 1984 and February 1985 and was made up of the Colorado Party, the National Party, the Broad Front and the Civic Union, in addition to several social and economic entities that, in the final stretch of the dictatorship, sought agreements that would allow the return to democracy to be consolidated.
What Manini proposes now would have the same purpose. In addition to the political system, It would be made up of the University of the Republic, similar institutions in the private sector, the trade union movement, student associations, cooperativism, shopping malls, business chambers and all professional groups. It would be through the application of article 206 of the Constitution, never put into practice, which provides for the operation of the National Economy Council.
“We told him that something like Conapro would not make sense now”Sanguinetti advanced. In the vision of the former president, such a body would be viable at the beginning of a government. Not now, he pointed out, when the current administration is halfway through his mandate and when his basic orientations were defined long ago through instruments such as the Budget or the Law of Urgent Consideration (LUC). “At first glance, it doesn’t seem conducive to us,” he said.
Sanguinetti did not rule out the possibility of extra-parliamentary agreements, but only at a punctual level. For example, in relation to the problem of addictions, which could deserve some type of national dialogue. The former president was accompanied at the meeting by the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Ope Pasquet (Citizens), in his capacity as rotating president of the CEN.
the owner of the ball
The meeting with Sanguinetti marked the end of Manini’s journey through all the parties to present his proposal. The leader of Cabildo Abierto said he left with the same optimism of a positive result with which he left the rest of the meetings. “It was a cordial and frontal dialogue”, Manini noted about his exchange with the former president. The senator’s reading was that with Sanguinetti there was “tuning”, since he “understood the importance” of engaging in this type of dialogue in a political moment such as the one the country is experiencing. The intention, he underlined, is “to give a signal to the Uruguayan people.” He also reiterated that his proposal is open to all kinds of suggestions from the rest of the system.
Colored fountains pointed to The Observer that the official response to Manini will be, in general, negative. Beyond the basic approach, in that game it is considered that the strategy used by Manini was inadequate. Above all, because of his decision to meet alone with the wide front instead of first articulating a definition with the rest of the government coalition. The Colorados criticize Manini for launching himself and wanting to position himself as “the owner of the ball.”
The main referent of the Independent Party, Paul Mieres, it also made the lobbyist’s proposal less viable, after a meeting that took place last week. The Minister of Labor made it clear that the “natural areas” for this type of agreement are the Parliament and the Executive Branch.
Manini’s proposal also generated a short circuit inside the Broad Front. The Socialist Party and other groups questioned this Friday and rejected the proposal, regardless of a future internal organic expression. “Our allies to close the crack of inequality and impunity are not in a right-wing coalition” they stressed in a statement, in addition to making it clear that in Cabildo Abierto “justify state terrorism.”
“It is not good for someone to be deprived of dialogue with another,” Manini said this Friday before the reaction of the Socialists. “It seems to me something negative that someone does not even agree to speak with another who is offering them that dialogue. In this way, democracy loses quality.” The leader of Cabildo Abierto insisted: “our path is to build bridges, build joint solutions to, ultimately, improve the living conditions of all Uruguayans.”
This Tuesday, and after having received Manini, the president of the Broad Front, Fernando Pereira, had advanced The Observer quer expected the arrival of internal questions about his decision to meet with the lobbying senator.
