The President of the Republic, Luis Lacalle Pou, spoke to the press on Tuesday as he left the Maldonado Campus, where he went to enjoy a rugby game between people deprived of liberty from Uruguay and Argentina, and was questioned about his position regarding the package of proposals of the Broad Front to alleviate inflation and fuel increases, and their respective effects on the purchasing power of citizens.
Among other things, the FA proposed to freeze the price of fuel for a certain time and exempts the value added tax (VAT) to 19 essential products that make up the basic basket.
“I have not received a request for a meeting, but I was recently notified by the Executive Tower that they left some measures. . Because we can all propose measures, lower VAT to nothing, lower fuel to nothing. You have to be responsible. Then, we will see the proposals that are made and we will answer as far as possible those that are feasible to take, and the others we will explain why not, “said the president.
He advanced that “these are not all” the measures that are currently being applied, which infers that others could come into force if the Executive deems it necessary, but that “an attempt is being made to do structural work for some prices.”
The money is there, says Pereira
Also surrounded by the press, the president of the Broad Front, Fernando Pereira, stated that the measures presented are focused on the well-being of the people who need the most. “If his point of view is that the one who has more has to get a little richer, keep it, I defend his right but I don’t share that idea. When did that spill occur? There are 9,000 million dollars stored in Uruguayan banks abroad,” argued Pereira in response to a journalist who questioned whether the measures could rather “slow down” the economy due to the “fiscal waiver” they will mean for the State.
“What happened to the one who goes to the popular pot? Forgive me but that is called social injustice in the world. When the Pope says ‘we must give the poor what belongs to them’, it is because others have what belongs to the poor”, continued the leader of the leftist force.
“And why didn’t the Broad Front do it when it was in government?”, asked the journalist, and Pereira replied: “It did (…) Poverty went from 40% to 9%, do you read the INE statistics? He did it when child poverty went from 47% to 17%, he did it when he doubled the educational budget, when he created the Ministry of Social Development and the Emergency Plan. Nobody in Latin America produced this drop in poverty as in the 15 years of the Broad Front. In these two years of Government, poverty increased again, both general and child poverty, 63% salary increase in the 15 years; in two years of the current government there is salary loss. Which one is missing? I tell him what he wants.”
He added that the economy did not stop, despite the fact that the journalist wanted to affirm that because “salary growth for 15 years” was seen, while today “people earn less, do not access products, go to the store and things they are expensive, the storekeepers ask to sell in installments, do you think that Uruguay is better or worse? I think worse.”
Finally, Pereira understands that the government has the money to face measures that benefit those most affected by inflation and rising prices: “I start from the basis that financing is possible because the deficit goal was exceeded. tax at 320 million dollars. Will there not be resources there to attend to the emergency and the vicissitudes of the people who are living badly? Of course there is. The problem is whether you want to use it or not.
