With that question as our maxim, we kick off an interview with Carlos Fernández, candidate for the Frente Amplio for mayor of Colonia. We also consulted him about the internal Frente Amplista. Are they still “elbowing each other,” as in past pre-electoral instances?
On Sunday, May 11, Carlos Fernández and Nicolás Viera will be the Broad Front candidates in the departmental elections. There, in that electoral instance, the departmental government of Colonia will emerge: Executive, Legislative Branch and representatives of the different municipalities.
It should be remembered that in the elections of October 2024, according to the Electoral Court with 100% of the votes counted from the 294 circuits, in the department of Colonia the Frente Amplio was the party with the most votes with 37,157 votes. It was followed by the National Party with 33,339 and the Colorado Party with 16,195 votes.
As the Colorados mostly appear running with their own candidates, the question that arises spontaneously for Fernández is whether he really believes the FA can win in May. He responds: “I think the expectations are good, that the Frente Amplio has the possibility of the departmental government, obviously, it must fight against a very, very heavy structure, where there is a very deep-rooted clientelism, very hooked there. But I think that the Frente Amplio has a nice opportunity.”
Carlos Fernández also analyzes that “there is a change of leaders, in this case (Carlos) Moreira and (Walter) Zimmer will not be there, although they will campaign the same, and well, the Frente Amplio I think has matured in some things… ”
-For example?
-That you have to work in a territory, you have to work closely with the people, I think it is going to be an important challenge. Encourage people who can have a department with equal opportunities and possibilities for everyone. That all Colonians have the possibility of accessing a call and being able to go to work as municipal officials. Because today they don’t find out in time about the calls. This is something that I am not saying, but that comes from the Court of Auditors itself. Inequality is generated when entering a contest, on a personal level and as a company.
-Do you think that people make the Frente Amplio de Colonia visible as a government option?
-I think so, the issue is that we have to make an enormous sacrifice, an enormous effort to reach people and talk to them in a certain way, beyond what we can do advertising.
-And inside the FA?
-Internally we do not have an internal dispute with Nicolás (Viera), we both have to work together to add up. The political rival is not within the Frente Amplio, our rival is the National Party. We work for the different government model that we come to propose.
-Nicolás Viera will take office as senator and this will condition him as a candidate to run an electoral campaign…
-Yes, Nicolás is now taking over as senator and he is going to have to spend a lot of time in the Chamber. But I still think we can repeat what happened in October. We want to change the department, I think we have to get our feet dirty in this, there is no other option…
-Historically, it has happened that the Broad Front candidates are complicated internally, they are put through a machine. They nudge each other on the way back. How is that intern today?
-I still don’t know what specific support I will have, I think there is an electoral issue that is complex, but I think that all sectors are going to open with the two lists, it is an issue that happens because there is a calculation that goes a little further, which is the issue of the councilors.
And having the departmental government with the national government, what we can do for the department can be much better. Mayor Moreira himself said it, that it was very good to have a Frente-Amplista government because the money was coming, the resources were there, the works were coming… And if we have a Frente-Amplista departmental government today, it would be much better to have the national government.
-Do you not feel that they love you or did they want to get out of the candidacy?
-No, no… At some point they came to me and told me that we were new, or that we had to look for or play on another court… But they proposed the bases to us: the first ones they proposed to us were three or four teammates, from whom the proposal. At first I said no, because considering that this proposal should have a woman… later our name came up again within the bases and we as the Communist Party said: ‘-well, if we can contribute something, we will be there-‘. We do not look at how far we go in an individual matter, but rather at what we can contribute. There are colleagues who understand that we do not have the experience there and it is reasonable, it is understandable, but if from the movement, if from the foot they propose to accompany the process, to be and put something on the table to be able to change, we are going to do it .
-Don’t you think that within the Frente Amplio, within the National Party, within the Colonia Party, there are people who have already completed their cycle, who can no longer contribute to making a better department…?
-I think so, that age is a question of experience, having been in certain places is an important question. I think that the renewal has to be there, if we do not have a small renewal, a replacement – something that has cost the Frente Amplio in Colonia – it is very difficult to grow and adapt to the current times.
-What will be the first measures to take if you are mayor in the Department of Colonia?
-The first thing we have to change is the issue of officials. The career ladder must be respected, the budgeting of workers, we have to give security to municipal officials, we have to strengthen the municipalities.
The municipalities have to have quality works, we have to promote popular participation, because that is why the third government was created, the third level of government, which is often managed by the leader or mayor of the place. There has to be a participation of the people to say: ‘What is the work that I need? Do I need to fix this street, or do I need public lighting, or do I need piping, or do I need to improve investment issues? -´. Well, we have to strengthen the municipality, we have to resolve the issue of transportation and transit.
The housing issue is something to be resolved as the mayor. We are convinced that by doing work between the departmental and national governments, purchasing land portfolios as the mayor’s office, we could make perfect progress on the issue of housing. This is also the case with health issues, which are often raised as not being the responsibility of the mayor’s office. But the mayor’s office plays an important role in the territory and there are issues that have to be addressed; There are places where mobile emergencies do not reach; There are places where the mayor can make agreements to achieve better care for the neighbors…
