“A training plan is underway union“Fernando Pereira said to the past from the stage of the El Galpón Theater, and the murmurs and laughter intensified from the seats. “It’s open doors!”, joked a leader. While he paused, Pereira understood the slip to which nearly 30 years of union activity spurred him on, and he shook his head before continuing the speech as new president of the Broad Front.
On the same day that the political force signed its founding act in the Lost Steps Hall of the Legislative Palace, but 51 years later, the leader took command and closed one of the most difficult stages of the leftist coalition in recent times. On December 5, he had consecrated himself at the polls as the new party leader, with extensive internal support that predicts a political backing that his predecessor did not have.
This Saturday’s occasion was seen behind closed doors as a “first test” for Pereira, with the responsibility of speaking to the public that he will command for the next five years. The new president spoke like this for more than an hour and addressed various topics between pauses, applause and some comments to relax.
“Imperialism is intervening here,” he mocked at the start of the speech before audio interference interrupted him, recalling what singer-songwriter Daniel Viglietti would say when something went wrong. Pereira attacked the government’s statement that the Broad Front and the PIT-CNT put “sticks in the wheel”, and advanced “hundreds of acts” to militate for the Yes before the referendum on March 27 to repeal 135 articles of the L.U.C.
“We promise from now that all our legislators, our intendants, mayors, councilors, councilors, but above all our militants are going to be knocking on the door of all the neighbors of Uruguay to convince that new majority,” he said. After a few minutes, he stole the first applause from the dozens of those present, stating that it was during the efforts of the Broad Front and 20 years after the end of the dictatorship that the first repressors suffered the consequences of their actions.
“These 15 years headed by Tabaré Vázquez and José Mujica are going to be among the best 15 of the last 70,” he assured, and listed a series of policies, from the Integrated National Health System to investment in changing the energy matrix. “If with all this they tell us that it was a lost decade, if they will be recounting a movie that did not exist,” he asserted, in line with a frequent catchphrase of his in the campaign that led him to the presidency of the FA.
Leonardo Carreno
Fernando Pereira took over as president of the FA
It is in this sense that, as reported The Observer, towill post for a team dedicated to thinking about strategic communication that will include the construction of stories among its tasks.
Pereira spent a few minutes reviewing his story: “I had not had as a political project to be president of the Front”, he said, and recalled his mother’s socialist origins, his father’s militancy with Zelmar Michelini, his Christian grandmother and his past as a “proud militant of Afuprim” (Primary officials’ union). He also mentioned his time in the PIT-CNT and the two base committees in which he participated, one of them in his native Jacinto Vera, where “the moon is whiter and more beautiful,” he recited.
Pereira spoke about his projects, including having the Political Table the first days of the week. “We cannot have an operating structure that makes us stay for five days. And forgive me for a criticism: we need to have our decisions discussed in depth. Our organizations have to be reliable and none that can be read in a newspaper the next day is. If you want to have deep discussions, don’t talk anymore in the newspapers. If you want to talk, show your face,” he launched, as in the campaign, and got one of the longest applause of the day.
The president promised that any leak of documents will come from them “one day before.” “Let our people find out from us!” he exclaimed, in line with a plan to strengthen the party leadership, which during the governments of Vázquez and Mujica had gone into the background. The pronouncement gathered several adhesions, among which was included the mayor Carolina Cosse, who confessed “1,000% in agreement”.
As in the campaign, Pereira once again called for generational renewal and for eight to ten “people to people” to be held annually. He criticized the machismo in the political force and stated that “there is no place for violent people in the Broad Front”, another of his most applauded premises. “We are not only an opposition to the current government: we are building an alternative to the current government that will arrive shortly. Slow but it will come,” he promised.
Pereira promised to remain in the presidency “until the last day” and sent winks of “welcome” to the whites, colorados and lobbyists who approach the committees, whose votes must be disputed in 2024. “We are going to go look for one by one to the 200,000 compatriots who did not vote for us in 2019, but also one by one to those who believe in social justice,” he said.
Leonardo Carreno
Ferdinand Pereira
“From now to March 27, few meetings and a lot of territorial militancy”, he asked. The act was colored by the symbology of the referendum, for which several Frente Amplio supporters understand that Pereira will be one of the preponderant spokespersons.
Greetings
After more than an hour of speech, began an extensive procession of leaders who approached the stage to greet him. Among the first were mayors Cosse, Andrés Lima and Yamandú Orsi –whom they had to shout out because he kept talking to others in the seats–. The leaders exchanged a few words after posing for the cameras.
as he knew The Observer, the new president told them that they had to get together more often. In his speech he had questioned the “obstacles” to the three front administrations to finance their works.
One of the last to approach was his predecessor, Javier Miranda, who had remained in the back of the room during the ceremony. “I already tell you: luck in the stack and fix yourself as you can. Now, don’t be a turnip, don’t play the savior, that you are going to modify it by your own imprint because you are going to crash and you are not going to make it,” he told him. had advised Miranda to whoever succeeded him, months before even consolidating Pereira’s candidacy.
Thus, setting up a new political scenario, he patted him hard on the back and limited himself to encouraging him: “Up!”
The first
Pereira will have his first public appearance this Sunday as president of the Broad Front. It will be a visit to Los Cerrillos, where he will be received by Mayor Rodrigo Roncio, a disciple of Yamandú Orsi, who will also accompany the tour.
