The president of the Broad Front, Fernando Pereira, attacked the mayor of Rocha, Alejo Umpiérrez, for putting “on pause” the debate that they had scheduled for the referendum against 135 articles of the Law of Urgent Consideration (LUC). The coordinator of the campaign for the No justified the decision on Tuesday due to the reluctance of the Front Amplista to have an exchange of this type with the Minister of Labor, Pablo Mieres.
“Now Umpiérrez suspends because I don’t debate with Mieres. But, do I have to accept the debates that he wants? What country does he live in? What value does the word have? He didn’t give it to me, he gave it to the medium that was going to make the debate. The same word that I gave to that medium, “Fernando Pereira told El Observador, adding that the Rochense’s position is “childish.”
“He went to the deck,” he questioned. “He will clarify it with the medium with which he promised in Rocha and will tell him: ‘I am not going to debate in Rocha because Fernando Pereira does not want to debate with Mieres in Montevideo'”, added the president of the Broad Front, which is one of the most visible faces of the campaign for Yes for March 27.
“It seems to me that it is not courteous on Pereira’s part to say that he debates with one and does not debate with another,” the mayor had opined this morning. “On the other hand, it would be a snub from a coalition partner that when they tell you that one does not debate with you, someone else takes your place,” said Umpiérrez, and assured that if the exchange with the leader of the Independent Party is settled, he would lend himself to discuss below.
Pereira insisted on The Observer that “the law was not made by Mieres”. “I respect him, I appreciate him, he is a valid person for the debate, but I want to debate with the authors. I have said that Mieres is not capable of making a law of such poor quality,” he said. “If blacksmithing has decided not to debate with me, let them say so,” he pointed out.
One of the pending issues is the debate between Pereira and the president of the White Board, Pablo Iturralde, whose conclusion will be discussed after March 7. The nationalist leader has affirmed on several occasions that the Front Amplista criticizes Herrerismo, but that neither he, nor the Secretary of the Presidency, Álvaro Delgado, nor Vice President Beatriz Argimón are Herreristas.
“If blacksmithing didn’t win, then Wilsonianism won,” said Fernando Pereira ironically. “Isn’t the (list of the Aire Fresco sector) 404 herrerismo? Isn’t Lacalle Pou herrerismo? Maybe I consult some historians, but it seems to me that there is no doubt”, he exposed.
“How do they explain that No doesn’t want to debate?” he attacked. “The liberals who said that it was an infamy that the Broad Front did not debate in electoral campaigns now it is more difficult for them to debate than anything else. Look, it is the sixth or seventh debate that they have suspended me since the signature collection. I have not made much noise with this but there is a moment when they have to say if they want to debate”, he added.
Pedreira released a letter on Sunday night in which he criticized the ruling party for not lending itself to debates with technicians for the Yes. “In a debate on education, the current director of Education, Gonzalo Baroni, vetoed the name of Luis Garibaldi, the main author of the General Education Law, and now they have not agreed to discuss housing with Valeria España, nor with Gustavo González de Fucvam,” he questioned.
“This position is surprising and contradictory given that we are proposing recognized specialists for the treatment of the thematic axes, without ceasing to accept on our part all the debates of general content of the law, among them the Andrade-Manini debate and those that are will give in the next few days, among others Bergara-Penadés, which are very valuable”, he wrote.
