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10/05/2005 | Uruguay: Ruling Left Makes Further Gains in Uruguay

WMRC Staff

President Tabaré Vázquez and his leftist Frente Amplio (FA - Broad Front) coalition have made significant gains in municipal elections held over the weekend (7-8 May).

 

Global Insight Perspective

Significance

Preliminary results from municipal elections held in the last two days have seen President Tabaré Vázquez's ruling FA coalition making historic wins in at least four of the country's departments.

Implications

The elections underline the end of the former two-party Colorado/National Party dominance of Uruguay's political scene.

Outlook

The results will provide a significant boost to the Vázquez administration, which took office on 1 March , but with a US$13-billion debt to contend with, the government is likely to struggle to achieve its social goals, a strengthening economy notwithstanding. 

The leftist Frente Amplio (FA - Broad Front) coalition under President Tabaré Vázquez, who took office on 1 March, made significant gains at the weekend, retaining the governorship of Montevideo and making historic wins in at least four other departments. Preliminary results from the Electoral Court suggest that the FA could win six or seven of the 19 departments at stake in the elections. The preliminary results suggest that the FA looks set to win in traditional National Party (PN) bastions, such as Paysandú, Rocha, Maldonado and Treinta y Tres, in the north and east of the country.

Canelones, traditionally dominated by the Colorado Party (PC) has fallen to the FA, as has Salto, on the border with Argentina, and another traditionally PC department. In all the PN looks set to take between 11 and 12 departments. The PC will retain just one - Rivera on the northern border with Brazil. The FA will take the rest, marking significant gains and a radical shift in Uruguayan politics. It also once again underlines the rise of left-of-centre politicians in the region

Outlook and Implications

Having won the October 2004 presidential elections, convincingly, Vázquez and his FA coalition formed the country's first ever left-wing government, ending the dominance of the two traditional and right-of-centre parties, the National Party and the Colorado Party, and the two-party system that had become a fixture of Uruguayan political life. The result of this latest election has further confirmed the shift away from the two-party system and underlined the rise of leftist politicians in the region. Uruguay is now a firm member of the South American family of left-leaning leaders, which includes President Kirchner in Argentina, Lula in Brazil, Lagos in Chile and Chavez in Venezuela.

Vázquez is more likely to take his cue from leaders such as Lula in Brazil and Lagos in Chile, than he is from more radical leftists such as Cuba's Castro and Venezuela's Chavez, and his administration is likely to be governed as much by pragmatic considerations as it is by social issues. Like many across the region, Uruguayans have also become wary of the kind of economic policies championed by the traditional political parties and international financial institutions (IFIs) such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. In this context, Vázquez's criticisms of the pure neo-liberal approach have struck a chord, as demonstrated by this weekend's electoral gains. That is not to say, however, that the country's economy is about to turn radically to the left. Having run for the presidency and failed twice before, Vázquez has moderated his leftist stance, focusing on change versus continuity, and promoting a leftward shift that is more of a change of emphasis than a radical break from the economic policies of the recently departed PN government.

WMRC (Reino Unido)

 



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