The FA president said that the government lives in a “parallel reality” and that “the main deficiencies were not taken into account.”
The president of the Broad Front, Fernando Pereira, gave a press conference on Monday in which he spoke about the draft Accountability that handed over the Executive Power to Parliament after the Political Table of the left-wing coalition meets. In the first place, the political leader maintained that the Uruguayan government “clearly saved 300 million dollars” in the previous surrender.
“In this surrender they place an additional 226 million, that is, that with the savings of the previous year the entire incremental public expenditure is covered. The second is left to the University of the Republic (udelar) abroad, the investment in education is infinitely less than what has already been taken from education,” he indicated. Pereira understands that Accountability is a “very austere” project that “does not take into account the main deficiencies that Uruguayan society has.”
On the other hand, the former president of the PIT-CNT commented on the government’s agreement with the Confederation of Organizations of State Officials (COFE). He believed that there is a salary recovery, but added that it is insufficient because the national wealth grew by 10% and all Uruguayan workers, in the best of cases, will recover their entire salary at the end of the government period. “They are going to earn the same as they earned in 2019, that is, for Uruguayans it has been half a lost decade,” he said.
In this sense, he pointed out that there is room to increase spending in the different points that currently generate problems, however, he expressed that what there is not is “political will.”
“What there is is a lack of political sensitivity from the government, which can be very angry, little or not at all, it can call us institutional disloyalty, intellectual dishonesty, but the truth is that there is less budget for education, spending on medicines was reduced , there was a salary reduction for the teachers, for the police teachers, the truth is that at the end of the period they will have the same salary increase. We in Parliament are going to work with the usual logic, which is to benefit those sectors that we feel are priorities”, assured.
Then, Pereira pointed against the ruling party and the government, who positively described this project of surrender. The president of the FA reiterated that the Executive Power “lives a parallel reality for a long time” and highlighted the contrast between the government’s sayings and the results of the work, for example, of the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
“It is a parallel reality to those who think that this Rendering of Accounts is fantastic. When people begin to break it down, when each resource is seen where it goes, we are going to see that it is a surrender that does not address the problems of the majority of Uruguayans and that, in addition, lies to the Uruguayans”, critical.
“Saying that there were no tax changes (…) those of us who pay card do not deduct a percentage of VAT, modify the basis for calculating personal income tax and for that tax they collect 65 million more, telling us that there were no taxes is lying to our faces. They get offended when we say these things, but it’s just reading or listening to the news. It is clear that there were tax changes that are finally going to end up paying half of this Rendering of Accounts, the taxes that people pay in Uruguay”, he said.
“You have to see and talk to the social organizations of society to see how popular pots have increased, how there are tens of thousands of Uruguayans throughout the country eating this way, how one sees in hospital centers and in the polyclinics that lack medicines. And this is not answered by insulting the president of the FA, it is answered with public policies that address the problems of Uruguayans. It is not insulting me, nor does it touch me, every week they can give me a new adjective that they are not going to touch me, now what it touches is the quality of life of the people who are having a bad time and the government does not assume this reality and it presents us with this parallel world that seems to be happy, but where a part of Uruguayans clearly does not touch it”, concluded.
Montevideo Portal
