With 13 votes in favor, it was resolved this Friday by the Departmental Board to impeach the mayor of Montevideo, Carolina Cosse. In this context, the Presidency team of the Montevideo Department of the Broad Front (FA) convened an “urgent” Departmental Table, considering this measure as an “attack” and an “outrage.” On the other hand, deputy of the Open Cabildo Eduardo Lust, the Minister of National Defense, Javier García; the senator for CA, Guillermo Domenech, and the leader of the Colorado party, Andrés Ojeda, are the first members of the coalition to show disagreement on the matter.
Lust told Grupormultimedio that “the political trial has a political and a legal vision. If the political vision is observed, two thirds of votes are needed that are not in the Senate. This would be the political position, if there are not the votes for what is going to be done, but I do not agree with it, since with that criterion, for not having a majority, no bills would be presented ».
“Here the issue is whether or not the political trial is appropriate” from a legal point of view, said the legislator. He explained that “the Constitution says that the mayor can be impeached if she commits serious crimes or violates the Constitution. Clearly Mayor Cosse did not commit serious crimes (they are from the Penal Code) and there are two libraries in regards to violation of the Constitution. There is a minority position that says that the violation of the Constitution must be a constitutional crime. In that case, the mayor did not commit them either, because they were practically all eliminated (except in electoral matters) ». He limited that the behavior remains as a violation of the Constitution. In this sense, the legislator considers that the mayor did violate the Constitution, “but not in something so serious that she deserves a political trial.” «She violated the Constitution because an article says that she must attend the Departmental Board and she did not go. Is there a violation of the Constitution? If it exists. It’s bad?. It’s not serious. I believe that it should not have been promoted, because in my opinion there is no cause for impeachment.
García insists that a “very extreme” decision such as the political trial “deserves a thorough legal and political analysis”
«From what I understand there was no organic consultation with the authorities of the party and neither of the coalition. A colleague from the Board consulted me on Friday when the decision was practically made and I told him that it seemed to me that it was necessary to pause a bit to analyze the decision legally and politically in greater depth. But as it is seen, I failed with total success, “he told Telemundo García this Monday morning.
For his part, Senator Domenech questioned the approved motion and pointed out that it is a “media circus”
“I used to come here and see the sidewalks, the transit, the public locomotion, the issue of garbage that we cannot solve […]. We could make a long list of the problems we have at the community level, but we are going to praise ourselves in a media circus because the mayor is arrogant and does not want to answer the requests for reports, and the councilors initiate a constitutional procedure, which we recognize as legally correct, but that we know that it does not have an effective destination, ”he said this Monday morning in dialogue with Things in their place (Sarandí).
Domenech mentioned that it is evident that there is not a sufficient majority in the Senate to approve the political trial, and in that line, he opined: “It makes me a little sad to see that we are not dealing with the important problems of the country, or of the city in this case transport and health, and we lend ourselves to this sterile discussion”.
Ojeda distances himself from impeachment
The leader of the Colorado Party, Andrés Ojeda, who supported the candidacy of Laura Raffo for the “multicolor” coalition in the last departmental elections, understands that this is not the time to promote a political trial of the mayor of Montevideo as the white councilors intend. , colorados and the mayor of the People’s Party.
“Cosse is wrong, ignoring parliament is not in accordance with democratic values, but impeachment is an exaggeration. Let’s keep prioritizing the public agenda, that’s the way to go,” she commented.
