Referendum, that solid Uruguayan tradition

The Uruguayan Constitution provides that by collecting 25% of the signatures of the electoral roll, a referendum can be called to ratify or change laws passed by parliament. It is the highest percentage of signatures in the world. In Uruguay, almost 800,000 were reached and exceeded. A month before the deadline no one thought it was possible, neither the ruling party nor the opposition that gathered the signatures.

We Uruguayans honored a tradition, everything ends at the edge of the end. And now next March 27, next Sunday we are compulsorily called to vote for him YES in favor of the repeal of 135 articles with a pink ballot or for the NO to the repeal with a celestial ballot. Obviously, the ruling party widely used in its campaign that “innocent” advantage of the Electoral Court of giving the blue color to the ruling party.

All the advantages of power were to be expected, media time is 50% higher than the NO option, advertising investment is already more than doubled and the direct participation of the President of the Republic and all the ministers in the campaign. To the point that while the SI will have access to the national radio and TV channel with 5 to 7 minutes of time, the next day the President will call a press conference, with no time limit. We knew it, they are the deformations of those who have been in power for 170 years, simply changing color, white and red.

We don't complain, but we don't shut up.

The Urgent Consideration Act, the LUC that was introduced into the Constitution in 1967 was effectively to address urgent issues and allowed the government to send bills to parliament that within 90 days, had to be approved or rejected, otherwise it was considered a fictitious approval.

In all the previous years (excluding the dictatorship) all previous governments, adding the LUC sent, reached that number of articles, 476 dealing with more than 40 subjects from the most diverse areas. The opposition, the Frente Amplio, which is the main party in the country, voted more than 200 articles in parliament. But as an initiative of civil society, trade unions, federation of cooperatives, students, 135 of these articles were objected to, and the Broad Front joined that initiative. The referendum is precisely to annul those 135 articles.

The government has always sought to present the referendum as an obstacle to governing, as a mid-term election, and as a clash between the ruling party (five parties and the Broad Front). This has been one of the central axes of his campaign, which is why and on the verge of article 77 of the Constitution, the President intervenes so directly in the campaign for the NO.

The LUC was approved on July 9, 2020.

These 135 articles deal with a wide variety of topics with direct and negative consequences on the economic and social situation of the country.

Since the monthly increase in fuels, which since its approval increased by 36%, impacting the entire family basket, transportation and inflation in general. This is when after 15 years of uninterrupted growth in GDP and wages and retirements, fixed incomes have lost almost 4% of purchasing power in two years and this year they continue on the same path. For the Argentine reality, it may be difficult to assimilate these figures, but in Uruguay, for example, they have determined that poverty will rise from 8.8 per cent to 10.2 per cent, especially in those under 18 years of age.

In 2020 GDP fell by 5.9% (after 16 years of growth) and in 2021 it grew by 4.5%, mainly driven by exports with very high commodity prices. However, that was not reflected in the social situation. Popular pots have still been working for two years. Longer than in the crisis of 2002.

There is an article in the LUC called the Fiscal Rule, which limits the ability of the government to exceed certain levels of state expenditure, that is one of the explanations why at a time when the economy requires state and private investment, we are at the lowest levels of recent decades.

Meanwhile, and after great batifund on the increase in Public Debt in several election campaigns, the numbers are conclusive:

Gross public debt in 2019, the last year of the Frente Amplio government, was 60.8% of GDP, in 2020 it rose to 74.4% and in 2021, despite having grown, it was 73.4% of the Product. While net public debt was 30.6% in 2019, 36.5% in 2020 and again 36.5% in 2021.

There are more than two years of governments and none of these campaign promises were fulfilled in the least, shielded in the pandemic.

Another axis of the 135 articles of the LUC is the issue of insecurity, which in fact reached very high levels during the governments of the FA despite having improved all social indicators, much more professionalized the police, armed, equipped and with decent salaries. In the LUC there is a set of rules that increase penalties and give repressive powers to the police.

Although at the beginning, during the first year of the pandemic, crimes were reduced, that has already been reversed, in January and February of this year there was more than one homicide per day, a figure never before reached and sectors of the police assumed attitudes of repressive overflow, against even the attitude of the majority of the National Police. It is one of the axes of the debate.

Another is the changes in the rent law that allow good payers to be evicted in 30 days and those who are 3 days late, have fines of up to 60% and evict them in 6 days. This — according to the developers — should encourage many homeowners to place the offer of their properties and reduce the cost of rentals. It didn't happen at all.

The 135 articles of the LUC are first and foremost a major failure, which are not even being implemented 20 months after their adoption.

The variety of subjects is very wide, for example beneficiaries of land from the National Institute of Colonization, can own land and live in cities, destroying the essence of IMC that is to settle people in the countryside. There are more than a thousand families waiting on land to live and work.

One of the key issues is that teachers have been excluded from government at two fundamental levels, primary and secondary, including technical schools, and also from the much-talked about education reform that practically did not progress in two years. We call it the government of excuses: the pandemic, now Russia's invasion of Ukraine and it must be making up some other argument.

The campaign for repeal is a civic cause with the support of politicians from all parties and representatives of social organizations, it is not a party cause.

We also want to give a clear signal to all politicians, from all parties, in the current government and in the future, it cannot be governed by the method of a gigantic Law of Urgent Consideration, passed without the necessary debate, without the participation of interested sectors and prepared to comment. That weakens democracy and the balance of powers.

The SI began in all the polls with a big negative difference, exceeding 15% in relation to NO, the great militant effort of thousands and thousands of people touring the country, in the battle on social networks, which as never played a great role and in general the development of the campaign, has made us allowed to reach this last week with a competitive cadre. We'll keep working until the last day.

* The author is responsible for the communication and publicity of the SI campaign.