Lacalle Pou denied having made such a commitment and pointed to his administration’s achievements in housing, security and mental health.
“I don’t remember having promised 50,000 homes, nor that that was in the government program,” said Lacalle Pou in response to Orsi’s statements during Sunday’s debate. The president affirmed that, far from being an unfulfilled promise, his government has doubled the investment destined for the most needy population, going from 240 million dollars to 480 million.
Tangible achievements and new tools
The president highlighted that his administration has prioritized the construction of housing, moving away from the concept of “housing solutions” to focus on specific projects. «It is clear that there has been a huge investment in housing, and it is being built. “We talk about real homes, not just solutions,” he said.
Among the milestones mentioned, he highlighted the record increase in MEVIR participation in rural localities and the “historic” reduction of the contribution of cooperatives from 5% to 2%. “It is a historic claim that this government attended to,” he emphasized.
Lacalle Pou also mentioned the implementation of the UYMAP application, a digital tool that allows citizens to access detailed information about the works carried out throughout the country. “There you can see where the resources of Uruguayans were allocated, in physical and concrete works, in every corner of the country,” he explained.
Investments in mental health and tour of the country
The president took advantage of the occasion to highlight investment in mental health, an area that he described as a priority. “In the last accounting we allocated $20 million a year for mental health, something that had not happened before,” he said.
On his agenda, Lacalle Pou announced that next Wednesday he will visit the towns of Castillo, Perseverano and Lares, in Soriano: “I am sure that the majority of political leaders have no idea where these towns are, but we are there, inaugurating works that change lives,” he concluded.
«We have marked about 50,000 homes. It is something really very ambitious. It’s the same as settlements. I want to fight, I want to reduce the number of settlements. Saying “zero settlement” is utopian, but I will do everything possible to reduce settlements in the country,” the then-appointed Minister of Housing Irene Moreira had said in the 2019 electoral campaign.
