“The National Plenary of the Broad Front ratifies the resolution of the Political Roundtable rejecting the pension reform presented by the government and the right-wing coalition”, begins by saying the resolution of last Saturday, November 26.
For the left-wing coalition, “the arguments that support the position of the Broad Front, set out in its statement, have not been refuted by the government and we maintain them. A social security reform is necessary, both due to financial and social sustainability problems, but not just any reform. We believe that this reform does not solve the problems that exist in terms of social security at all, since it is hardly a pension reform whose sole focus is aimed at reducing public spending.
On the other hand, later on, the document attacks the supposed intention of the government in what would be an agreement with its ideological orientation.
“This reform is consistent with the country model that the government promotes, a generator of inequality, characterized by an adjustment that only benefits a small sector of the population and harms the great national majorities. A country model that results in a more unequal Uruguay, with higher levels of poverty and concentration of wealth. This reform is not designed to guarantee the rights of our people to a dignified life from childhood to retirement, since it only cuts them instead of guaranteeing them. It does not strengthen the social protection matrix, it only reduces it. But in addition, it does not even consider or incorporate any modification in the income of the system, to reduce the inequities that it presents and improve its sustainability, seeking to make the system less dependent on items from general income. Not only does it not improve the income of the BPS and other pension organizations, but it reduces them, given the enormous transition costs generated by the mandatory expansion of the number of workers included in the individually funded pillar managed by the AFAPs”.
However, in statements to the press, the president of the Broad Front Fernando Pereira explained that his legislators will vote on some articles of the project, “few, but they are articles that can favor the situation of some particular groups and that the FA will not have the foolishness not to vote for them.”
“In general, they are going to vote negatively for it,” said Pereira, while announcing the creation of a commission, among the political authorities of the left, senators and deputies, to monitor the issue in each of the chambers, and to “Go taking those positions that come close to improving people’s quality of life.”
“It is clear that the Broad Front emphatically rejects the reform because, basically, it is very unfair. That is to say, its financing falls on the workers, in more number of years and less amount at retirement age ”, he indicated.
