The president of the Broad Front (FA), Fernando Pereira, attacked various government figures for “a set of inexplicable systematic attacks” against him.
As he stated, in a lengthy post on his Facebook account, The reason for these attacks are two sentences that he said during the first fortnight of this 2023. Both are from when he criticized the government when it bragged about the record numbers of tourism in the summer season: “There is talk of a record season in tourism. Based on what? It’s nine days in January. Based on what can be certain of a record season” and “the problem is that measuring tourism requires statistics more than states of mind.”
His statements prompted “a series of responses” from politicians and editorialists, “inspired by the passion of the debate in some cases and in others motivated by the simplest and most usual verbal violence”, criticized the president of the opposition. “It is unfortunate that the discrepancy, essential for the democratic life of a country like ours, that the diversity of opinions, the place where the intellectual wealth of the country is nurtured, leads to considerations such as the ones that I am going to detail,” wrote the leader of the left coalition.
Thus, he insisted that the insults received will change his “course”, which “is that of seriousness in the questions and sensitivity in the contributions.”
The attack and the response
Alejo Umpiérrez, mayor of Rocha
Pereira began by replying to the community leader of Rocha, Alejo Umpiérrez, who asserted that “the new style of political action” developed by the FA is “caranchos”.
“There is the true verbal violence, the insult as an answer that does not invite exchange in the discrepancy but simply seeks disqualification”, argued the president of the opposition party.
Thus, he wondered what is the contribution that Umpiérrez makes “to the democratic life of the country” and if the debate on “an issue as important” as tourism should be placed “in grievance.”
Graciela Bianchi, Senator of the National Party
In his publication, Pereira collected the criticisms that the legislator made to the Broad Front after learning that the company Vertical Skies asked to the former head of the president’s custody Luis Lacalle Pou, Alejandro Astesiano, elaborate “records” about the senators Charles Carrera and Mario Bergara. After this fact, Pereira had asserted that “there was espionage on two senatorsand not just any espionage, the intention was to extort them”, so Bianchi accused the FA of wanting to “destabilize the country”.
“The senator, once again, resorts to his extreme pronouncements and accuses us of destabilizing the country. Well, if this time her virulence weren’t part of this apparent conservative crusade that I’m worried about highlighting, I’d ignore her since she’shis extremisms are more in tune with parliamentary folklore than with the need to express an argument”, wrote the president of the opposition party on his personal Facebook account.
Sebastián Da Silva, Senator of the National Party
Another white senator pointed out against Pereira: “He has no work culture,” he shot, as the FA leader recalled in his publication, which makes him have a “pathological reaction of seeing everything negative.”
Thus, the president of the FA responded: “I am not going to respond to the issue of work culture because that disqualifying pyrotechnics fallen into the void of lies is no longer acceptable, but it did call my attention due to its aggressiveness, and in the framework of what should be an analysis of reality or an exchange of democratic tenor, the superficial psychological diagnosis calling the discrepancy pathology. It is serious, like any authoritarian thought”.
Pablo Mieres, Minister of Labor
The Minister of Labor and Social Security (MTSS) did respond to Pereira’s criticism of the tourism figures, when he tweeted that he found it “unfortunate” and that the front player “nothing is good for him.”
Mieres also claimed that “it seems that [Pereira] he’s wishing everything was wrong”; Thus, the opposition leader retorted that this consideration is, “to put it mildly, unfortunate.”
“No, Pablo, as I said at the beginning, neither for me nor for the Broad Front the situation of the citizens is loot for political gain”, he expressed.
Rodrigo Caballero, columnist for the newspaper El País
A columnist for that outlet wrote about Pereira’s assertions, calling them “a new form of chic syndicalism, in the Kirchnerist way”. This includes “leaders who reside in mansions at the foot of a hill, with a collection of high-end cars and a private zoo,” the writer noted.
Thus, in Pereira’s opinion, “it is interesting to observe how the opinions of some and others always cross in the same direction but each one releasing their creativity as a laboratory of evil.” He further added that “The vilest occurrences and the compromised conviction of a unique and untouchable truth accumulate seeking to sow political and moral distrust of the opposition”.
Closing
Pereira accused “the politicians and editorialists” (to which he added, among others, the Secretary of the Presidency, Álvaro Delgado, and the General Secretary of the Colorado Party, Julio María Sanguinetti) of make a “thunderous noise” so that “the soundtrack of the horror movie that kept playing with Asthesian and [el narcotraficante Sebastián] marset as guest performers.
A) Yes, tourism “had ceased to be the topic”he whipped.
In this sense, he emphasized that both he and “all the front players” have “hard skin” because they temper it with “different fires.” “So they can keep hitting because we’re going to keep saying what we think is wrong, what we don’t like or what we see as wrong.. And we will have enough sensitivity and decency to pronounce ourselves on those things that our political force considers positive”, wrote the political leader of the left, also maintaining that they will do so “always within the framework of respect for people and institutions”.
