The national meeting of “Best Country” was held yesterday at Club Punta del Este. This group of nationalist leaders from the interior seek that precisely all the departments have an important political weight within the national government.
In addition to the host, the mayor of Maldonado Enrique Antía, José Yurramendi, Sergio Botana, Diego Echeverría, Carmen Tort, Juan José Bruno were present at the meeting, and the visit of the mayor of Colonia, Carlos Moreira, the deputy Alvaro Dastugue, Darío Pérez, as well as leaders from other sectors such as Martín Laventure from Espacio 40 and José Martín Hualde, as well as José Carlos Cardoso from the department of Rocha. These were joined by mayors and leaders from all over the country.
Antía opened the Best Country meeting with strong support for the government and distancing itself from the “electoralitis” virus. The communal chief described it as “dangerous” and the result of some leader who “went out of his mouth” and put the party and the government in a difficult position, because half of the campaign commitments have not yet been fulfilled. The mayor of Maldonado pointed out that first you have to comply and support President Luis Lacalle Pou and then electoral time will come.
The presence of leaders from all over the country but also the visit of mayors and deputies from other sectors of the National Party did not go unnoticed by Antía, who said that it is about giving a signal that “we are willing to talk with those who are in the same line of work, that of complying with the neighbor ».
In his opening speech, the mayor said that “no one thought that the president was going to put on the points that he did, but he put on them and that leaves the bar high. He firmly and transparently faced good difficulties, not so much and bad. But everything has been dealt with transparently and the important thing is to look each other in the eye and comply,” he stated.
He noted that from the Broad Front “they want to corner us, and they are voting against us.”
“We said in the campaign that the big trouble was going to be on the first of March with the reforms to face, as with the educational reform with which the FA stood up, but they are going to face it very firmly.” Antía stressed that it is an important day because today “we began to get together” with the sole objective of closing ranks behind the government. He recalled that Best Country was a group that had an impact on the electoral result and guaranteed the victory of the party.
“We were at the foot of the canyon without asking for anything,” he said, while greeting María de Lima, the only position in the group of mayors in the government. De Lima works in the OPP:
He said that they had said in the campaign that they would support the government to the extent that they did things well, without asking for anything in return and in that context they have worked. He pointed out that the government is fighting “before the stick in the wheel” something that is embodied in a political style that has already been seen in Maldonado but that has managed to be overcome with management.
“There is a dangerous electoralitis virus because some leaders left their mouths and caused difficulties for the party and the government. You cannot talk when we are coming out of the pandemic and putting a country on track, ”he added.
Antía ended by saying that “we are alive because we have 75,000 young people who voted in the youth elections, more than 4,000 in Maldonado and 7,000 in Cerro Largo, but also more than 25,000 in the Colorado Party. The coalition has more than 100,000 young people on the streets to defend the coalition and that for the most veterans is peace of mind, ”she concluded.
“The president trusted the management of the interior”
Meanwhile, the mayor of Cerro Largo, José Yurramendi, held the meeting with the entire leadership to listen “to those who are not 100% immersed in day-to-day political management, but who are a fundamental pillar, like the leaders.”
He spoke of the importance of decentralization, which is possible “thanks to the fact that the group included it in the electoral proposals.”
In defense of the government, Yurramendi recalled that in the pandemic a universal salary was demanded by the opposition. But it was at that time that “from the Group of Mayors it was proposed that this salary be decent for the people and beneficial for the country.”
“It was thus that with Maldonado as an example, the best social policy, which is employment through solidarity wages, came to fruition,” he said.
He said that President Lacalle Pou took the group’s proposal in the meetings led by Antía that they carried out through the departmental governments. Employment was given in exchange for work, and people were included in the labor market and socially.
In the first plan, 25,000 citizens passed through, because 10,000 managed to enter the private market. He also gave as an example the advances in terms of gradually eliminating the settlements. “The president trusted the management of the interior and examples of this group,” he said.
For his part, the mayor of Colonia Moreira said that “the spirit of a government that will become government again in the next election is kept alive.”
Defense of the municipalities
María de Lima (member of the OPP), highlighted the importance of changing people’s lives and that is being achieved through management.
The leader made a strong defense of the Municipalities and said that today it is possible for many towns to have water, electricity, sanitation, among other actions, thanks to the local government that implies the third level of government. She recalled that, in Montevideo, what used to be called cantegriles, is now being achieved by urbanizing neighborhoods.
“The previous government plunged them into poverty and today we raise the quality of life of the people and that is done by the mayors of Montevideo, something that the leader of ADEOM, Valeria Ripoll does not know,” he said.
De Lima pointed out that managing often leads to disagreements between a mayor and a mayor, because the negotiation is built. He highlighted that the group has a high component of mayors and councilors who work for decentralization and have an impact on management.
“Data kills story”
Deputy Diego Echeverria, who was a member of the Best Country table, highlighted the importance of the group’s support “because we are government people.”
He pointed out that the defense of the government is key because “there is an attack by the Broad Front and the PIT CNT with the construction of a false and offending story that must be defended with data. That is the little legitimacy they have” affirmed the legislator.
He argued that these are not times for definitions or candidacies, something that will not be viable without a good government. He put pillars such as employment, social security, citizen security and educational reform on the government’s defense list.
He stressed that the employment policy has resulted in 6,000 people leaving unemployment insurance in October. “The beacon is salary recovery, but it cannot be said that we are not fighting and data kills a story,” she said.
