Deputy Eduardo Lust resigned in February from Cabildo Abierto, a party in which he had been since 2019.
“During the last months of 2022 I was thinking about the issue and in January 2023, a month of little political activity, I took the opportunity to resolve the matter. First with my daughters and then with four colonels who are of my absolute confidence. I raised the idea and they told me that there were people in the Cabildo Abierto –not Manini Ríos– who were going to be satisfied with my decision, because they were not particularly sympathetic,” said the resigner.
Eduardo Lust plans to found an environmental and legal party.
“First I thought of forming a group within the Cabildo Abierto, but later I realized that it was practically the same as making a new party. So I made the decision to start from scratch. I do not intend to join another party beyond the fact that I have received contact from several, the National Party, the Colorado and even the Broad Front. What I am saying is that belonging to a traditional party is an emotional issue. One is white by Leandro Gómez, by Aparicio Saravia; colored by José Batlle y Ordóñez. Also by tradition, by grandfather, father. In a new party that appears is a rational question. If I went to the Vega party, of the People, emotionally I don’t feel anything, it’s a rational decision. Rationally I joined the Cabildo Abierto, but emotionally I did not feel like a member of the Cabildo Abierto. Until 10 or 15 years have passed, that emotional part will not arrive ”, he maintained.
Regarding his departure from the Cabildo Abierto, deputy Lust stressed that in his meeting with Manini Ríos “I explained the theory I have of a marriage,” according to what the deputy said in a statement to El Telégrafo.
“The ingratitude of the people”
“The ingratitude of the people bothers me, not that they have left the party. It annoys me that I have to continue talking about the Cabildo Abierto to be at the top of the table”, sentenced the lobbyist deputy Sebastián Cal, according to the newspaper El País.
He “deeply” regretted Lust’s statements and considered that he “should be very grateful” to that political force.
The inconvenience came after Lust declared to La Diaria that during the government administration they did not remove “nobody from the settlement, having the Ministry” of Housing, in charge of Moreira.
In that sense, he added: “Now, what is the explanation? That the president does not give him money or put a nationalist in the Ministry of Housing who is the one who manages the money. So, if you have a person who doesn’t allow you to get people out of the settlement, you have to say ‘what I came for, I can’t, I have to leave this’”.
For her part, the lobbyist deputy Elsa Capillera believes that Lust “is wrong to criticize him now that he is not” in the Cabildo and that, in addition, he has to focus on the new party that he announced that he will create. She, in turn, understands that the deputy has to take care of the government coalition.
“He is taking steps at will,” another lobbyist who did not want to be named told El País, adding that it makes “noise” that since the deputy left the party, the “only thing he has done is criticize the coalition.” He also pointed out that his departure from the Cabildo “does not affect the majority of the ruling party at all” and that his decision “could be expected” but “it was not known when it could take place.”
Another Cabildo leader, who also did not want his name to be published, pointed out that “it would be better if (Lust) attended the home deliveries that are made weekly.” Cal, meanwhile, stressed that Moreira has had a ministry with “wide open doors” that “had no problem” in rendering accounts. Therefore, it seems to him a “very great ingratitude” what Lust has expressed “with his public statements.” On the other hand, he regretted “very much” that he decided to no longer be part of the Cabildo bench. This “hits us a bit in morale”, because he said goodbye “after three years of working together” through a letter and not in person, he criticized. “But hey, it was his decision, which I have no doubt that he will regret in a short time. Because he becomes an actor who is not going to have significant weight in deciding anything, ”added the deputy.
“It is unfortunate that in order to continue being in the media, instead of dedicating himself to presenting proposals, he has to speak ill of the party that opened the door for him and allowed him to be where he is today,” he concluded. Lust, as he announced the day he resigned, will now dedicate himself to building a “national environmental movement” with “absolute freedom” to criticize the current government.
The crossing with Peña
Lust pointed against the red Adrián Peña, who was in charge of the Ministry of Environment. The independent deputy pointed out that “there is no environmental policy” and that “the precise thing he did was eliminate the plastic sip.”
Deputy Cal believes he “wrote” him. And he asked: “What did Lust propose related to environmental issues in recent years?” And he considered that he “will be a legislator only that he will be sailing in the broth of oblivion, surely.”
On the other hand, a Cabildo leader pointed out: “Until now, the only important project in defense of the environment, by trying to prevent the best lands in Uruguay from being forested, was presented by deputy (Rafael) Menéndez and we defended it in the Senate and in the General Assembly. The rest is smoke and chatter.
It will be necessary to see his future, what his real plans are, and what will happen to his bench, which is clear, that in addition to how controversial it has been in some instances of the lower house, it is still a loss for a party in development such as Cabildo Abierto.
Juan Prandi
