This Saturday the National Command of the government coalition was presented in defense of the Law of Urgent Consideration (LUC) ahead of the referendum on March 27.
Gathered at a venue in the Pocitos neighborhood, the members presented the work team made up of representatives of the National Party, the Colorado Party, Cabildo Abierto, the Independent Party and the People’s Party. “We are going to work in a coordinated manner in the electoral process for the referendum on March 27,” said Darío Castiglioni, a member of the commission and a nationalist representative in the Electoral Court.
They also announced the beginning of a “national campaign of delegates in defense of the LUC” and they extended a call to citizens to register as delegates through groups and political parties.
The members are: Castiglioni (National Party), Sandra Cha (Open Council), Rubén Prieto (Independent Party) and Juan Diego Caldas (People’s Party).
“We are convinced that the LUC is a just and popular law. So popular is it that it emerged in the more than 900 meetings since 2017 and throughout the electoral campaign with all sectors of society. There are many Uruguayans who support this law because it represents what they think and because they also voted for a coalition to bring about the long-awaited changes. Therefore, in addition to voting No on March 27, voting the light blue ballot so as not to repeal this law, we are going to defend the will of the sovereign that is expressed at the polls and we will be zealous custodians of popular suffrage,” Castiglioni said during the conference of press.
As indicated this Sunday, a national tour will begin with the aim of establishing a link with the departmental electoral commissions that will be in operation on voting day. “We are going to tour the 19 departments and we are going to do it in each one with the format that we have here today: in coalition. And in each of the departmental electoral commissions the five parties that intervene in the government coalition are integrated, in addition to the fact that we already know that in several departments citizens without party militancy have joined the campaign in defense of the LUC.
For his part, the president of the Board of Directors of the National Party, Pablo Iturralde, said at a press conference that they will try to have at least one delegate in each circuit of the country. “In this case it is much more important because we feel that there is a lot at stake and we want to do it together. It seems to us that we govern as a coalition, we defend a law as a coalition and we have to go out and tour the country as a coalition,” he said.
Despite the fact that this command has members from all the parties, Iturralde pointed out that it will not change what has been done up to now. There will be acts in which everyone will participate and others that will be done separately. The decision of the whites not to invite members of other parties to certain events has generated suspicion in part of the rest of the coalition parties.
“This is a law that citizens have to defend. Here we don’t vote for any candidate, we don’t vote for president or legislators. What do we vote for? The defense of the law, but also a conception of government, which has definitely come to make some changes that were committed to the citizenry and today we have the obligation to defend that law and the right to defend that form of government”, considered the Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Iturralde also considered that there is “a lot of ignorance” about the content and scope of the law in question, so it is necessary to “communicate very strongly with the people.” In addition, he questioned the impulse of the PIT CNT and the Broad Front to gather the signatures to take the law to a referendum: “We did not want to waste time last year. We were (spoke about) collecting signatures, which for us is a right of the citizens. We have to see if there was institutional loyalty in using it on this particular issue”.
He stressed that his opponents had to express, in this year and a half, in what specifically the LUC has harmed them. Before the consultation on the increase in fuels, Iturralde refuted: “It would be very interesting if they asked Carolina Cosse or (Mario) Bergara, who also voted for that norm. Because today the Front challenges a norm that came out unanimously in Parliament “What we are trying to do is adjust the international price of oil by regulating the actions of the Executive Power. Before, Antel transferred more than 1,000 million dollars to the Central Economy. On January 2 we are going to honor Leandro Gómez and that time we did not go because we had to go to the Senate to vote an 800 million dollar subsidy to Ancap for mismanagement”.
“There is a great deal of misinformation. I attribute it to the fact that there are many Uruguayans who are not concerned about LUC because it has not caused them any harm,” said Castiglioni, adding: “Since the LUC has not affected the lives of any Uruguayan, there are many who do not care. Today it is not a matter of concern if it were not for this referendum that is planned”.
The controversy over the debate between Manini and Andrade
“I don’t have any problem,” said the president of the National Party when asked if he would be willing to debate with his counterpart, Fernando Pereira. He made the caveat that he should consult with the authorities of his party.
Despite this, he stressed that he believes that the debate “has to be face to face, everywhere” and that he understands that this type of televised debate is of interest to the followers of politics and not so much to ordinary citizens who do not is involved.
On the other hand, he launched: “It would be a good idea if you want to debate with (Álvaro) Delgado, call (Miguel Ángel) Toma, who had the same position.” Toma was investigated for alleged irregularities in the official missions to Rome (Italy) and Washington (United States) in 2019 and 2020, to which he attended with an accountant without due justification, for the current Executive.
Facing the debate between Guido Manini Ríos and Óscar Andrade, he expressed that the former commander-in-chief of the Army is a “serious and responsible” person who surely “knows the law thoroughly” and tactically knows what he has to do.
