The National Party did not reach an agreement regarding who should succeed Gustavo Penadés in the presidency of the Mercosur Parliament. Penadés is accused by at least eight people concrete for supposedly having abused of them being minors, after the first public denunciation of the PN militant, Romina Celeste Papasso Oliver.
While he enjoys a special license from the Uruguayan Senate, Penadés also took leave as president of Parlasur after the prosecutor, Alicia Ghione, who is investigating the case for alleged sexual crimes, asked that his immunity be processed so that he can face a process Criminal like any citizen.
But the selection process for Penadés’ substitute at Parlasur was not free of controversy.
The PN failed to agree on a consensual successor
The whites decided last week that the white deputy Mario Colman would assume the space that Penadés left empty for three months, as defined within the PN last week, but senator Sergio Botana also wanted the place.
Botana and Colman had a meeting, but did not come to a joint decision. So, this Monday, May 29, the PN released a third name: Rubén Bacigalupe, who will take over on an interim basis.
The Broad Front bench expressed their annoyance with the National Party for this string of disagreements. The deputy of the MPP, Bettiana Díaz, said in the session that the coalition “has just removed” Penades from the Mercosur parliament and said that the act was a “big job.”
“We insist once again that speaking on behalf of the Uruguayan delegation does not correspond either to the table or to other parliamentarians. We are very ashamed to have to go through this situation, because in reality we have been a very responsible delegation, trying to take care of the functioning of Parliament,” Díaz said.
And I add: “We have been extremely responsible as part of the Uruguayan delegation, from the Broad Front delegationBecause we don’t even know if all the parliamentarians know in this plenary session why today there is no vice president and president of Uruguay, why he is on leave,” Díaz said.
