Although the president’s speech Luis Lacalle Pou before the General Assembly stood on the concept of “data and not story”his intervention was not exempt from interpretations and questions.
From the opposition, criticism of the management balance focused almost exclusively on the diagnosis that the president made regarding the progress of the economy. There, the Broad Front warned that Lacalle Pou omitted to talk about the increase in rates –despite his campaign promise not to upload them–, as well as the drop in wages or the increase in inflationand also relativized the assertion that in these two years taxes were not raised.
“The government has a parallel reality”summed up the president of the political force at a press conference, Ferdinand Pereira, a few minutes after the end of the dissertation for the two years of government. The senator mario bergara (Force Renovadora), for its part, said that its discrepancies were due to what “was not mentioned” in the speech, while Charles Carrera (MPP) wrote that “For the second consecutive year the government fails to fulfill its campaign promises”.
At the end of the speech –a good part of which consisted of outlining the figures achieved by ministries and public entities–, Lacalle Pou made one of the statements that most divided the political system.
“Everyone will remember that in the campaign there was a discussion about whether to put or increase taxes to carry out the plans. And it was not a political discussion: top-level academics argued that this was going to happen. Again, data and not story A strong social investment was made, the economic plans were fulfilled and the Uruguayans were not put their hands in the pockets,” said the president.
The words that unleashed one of the biggest applause of the day by the representatives of the ruling party generated, from the opposition side, the biggest questions.
“The large numbers that President Lacalle is talking about have nothing to do with the reality of the people who go to the store and now can buy less,” said Fernando Pereira at the exit. The senator of the MPP, Alexander Sanchezechoed the president’s crutch, but to emphasize what he believes should also have been mentioned.
“Data and no story.” In two years, fuel has increased six times, a kilo of meat costs more than 400 pesos, a liter of oil 150, while salaries and pensions continue to fall, “wrote the legislator.
Bergara criticized that Lacalle campaign had adopted the commitment not to raise rates and taxes “and did not fulfill it.” “Taxes have risen, either due to the installation of the covid-19 tax, either due to the VAT refund on purchases with electronic means and also due to changes in the calculation methodology that means that more personal income tax is paid and more IASS”.
In this sense, he believed that “we must take with tweezers” the commitment to reduce the IASS and personal income tax for 2023 if the economy allows it. “It is not only important to grow, but how to grow; the economic recovery that the president spoke of does not reach the majority of Uruguayans,” said Carrera, who quoted the economist Rodrigo Alonso, who argued that “the country grew by 4.5%, but 70% of the Uruguayan population is poorer due to the loss of wages”.
“Exports, favored by good international prices, are 5.6% above pre-crisis levels, while workers have lost 3.2% of real wages in the first two years of government,” the report said. MPP senator. the socialist senator Daniel Olesker In turn, he spoke of a “fictitious reality of a beautiful world” despite the fact that “household incomes continue to fall.”
25 days before the referendum, the Law of Urgent Consideration (LUC) – which had certain allusions by Lacalle – was not part of the main questions of the opposition as soon as the speech ended. The Broad Front will have this Thursday an extraordinary instance of the Executive Secretariat, in which it will address the extensive speech and then issue an institutional statement.
