President Luis Lacalle Pou held a press conference this Wednesday as the closing of the campaign for the No to the repeal of 135 articles of the Law of Urgent Consideration (LUC).
The message was a day after the radio and television network that campaigned for the Yes.
“Today I come to talk to you about the importance of not repealing the 135 articles of the LUC,” said the president. in his first words before the journalists and before the television cameras. “The repeal would clearly mean a setback (…) It is not the same to govern with these 135 articles as without these 135 articles“, he insisted.
He defended that he spoke “for the first time” of a law of urgent consideration, at the end of 2017, the draft was distributed in January 2020. “No one can say that it was in a hurry, it is said that it was not discussed: more than 170 delegations (were) in one (parliamentary) chamber, and 100 delegations in the other,” he said. And he recalled that “more than 270 articles were modified.”
“Today the law has been in force for a year, eight months and 14 days, so it is between us. The damages that were announced have not happened. Yes there have been benefits. The records we have in public security, drug trafficking, adoptions and public companies say so,” the president defended.
For Lacalle Pou, if he did not achieve his goal on Sunday, it would not be a “triumph”, he stated. And he explained it like this: “I wouldn’t call it a win. It’s not to celebrate. It’s the ratification of a tool.”
“This law was designed for the good of all Uruguayans,” said the president, in the last words of his speech -which demanded 15 minutes–, and prior to questions from journalists. Then, the conference had 11 more minutes, totaling 26 minutes.
Leonardo Carreno
The president gave a conference in defense of the LUC, one day after the Yes chain
The chief mentioned the articles referring to “heavier penalties” for criminals, and support for the police. At another point, he referred to the “notorious deterioration of the educational level.” He said that the government opted for “tools” to reach the student. “These (LUC) tools are going to help, that’s really where it evens out.”
In labor terms, he valued the articles as a “positive solution”, in defense of the right to strike, and that, “at the same time, it defends those who want to work”.
Lacalle Pou reported that the government, from 2020 to the present, invested US$ 1,700 million “in health and in the weakest”. In economic terms, he stressed that Uruguayans have “freedom” if they want to use the money in cash, or through a debit card.
