“Ciudadanos has given a name of a person who is already working within the State in another body”said President Lacalle.
“When one is in the public service, one must be up to the task and, in my case, that I have to lead a sector and that I am in charge of a ministry, it is true: I must be the example”, Adrián Peña said this Monday at a press conference, and reiterated: “I must be the example.”
The Environment Minister announced in the Legislative Palace that he presented President Luis Lacalle Pou with a candidate to succeed him in the portfolio. “I have made this decision days ago and I have been discussing it with the President of the Republic, who did not ask me to resign. But days ago I told the president: ‘President, I want you to do without me as head of the Ministry of the Environment because that is how I feel comfortable, honoring those principles and those values that I have always defended,’” Peña assured.
“I discussed this with the president, and since it is not a decision for today, we have already proposed a name for him to occupy the position, a name that he has accepted and that will be known in the next few hours,” added the leader of Ciudadanos.
Minutes later, The Observer reported that Robert Bouvier, vice president of Antel, will be the new Minister of the Environment, which was confirmed by Montevideo Portal with political sources.
Bouvier is an accountant, he was a member of Vamos Uruguay, the Colorado sector led by former Senator Pedro Bordaberry, and in the last elections he joined Ciudadanos, the sector founded by former Foreign Minister Ernesto Talvi who won the internal elections of the Colorado Party and is led by Peña.
President Lacalle referred in San Gregorio de Polanco, Tacuarembó, to the resignation of Peña and also to his successor. “We handled different elements at different times and culminated in this situation, which I think is valuable” the resignation, “because he understands that the Government cannot be harmed by this situation,” said the president, who considered “that this gesture strengthens” to the government coalition.
When asked if Bouvier will be the successor, Lacalle replied: “Ciudadanos has given a name of a person who is already working within the State in another body; the nomination corresponds to Ciudadanos. If there is no objection from a professional or personal point of view, which in this case there is not, we would be accepting the name proposed by Ciudadanos”. Montevideo Portal
