MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Referendum regarding social security to go ahead in Uruguay

“The cause is just, ethical, necessary, and loaded with future,” Abdala said

Uruguay's labor union Pit-Cnt has garnered the number of signatures required by law; therefore, the social security reform will be subject to a referendum on Oct. 27, simultaneously with the election of a new president. The grouping appeared before Parliament on Saturday with 430,023 signatures to support its request.

Pit-Cnt leader Marcelo Abdala said it was a “terrible day of joy.” In addition to the signatures presented on Saturday others from the interior of the country were expected to be arriving the following days.

Abdala also underlined “the path from below, dialoguing with the people, open to talk with people of the most diverse orientations of all political sectors”, with the conviction that “the cause is just, ethical, necessary and loaded with future because it foreshadows a more democratic and egalitarian society.”

Broad Front (Frente Amplio - FA) presidential hopeful Yamandú Orsi said that “a new stage is opened.” He added that “the Frente Amplio is not going to jeopardize people's social security, that is a guarantee.” He also congratulated the Pit-Cnt “despite our differences.” Orsi has repeatedly said he was not endorsing such an initiative “because of how it was worded.”

In any case, the Frente Amplio is split over this particular subject. Some leaders are in favor of it and others are not. “It is always necessary to think and reflect if what one resolved is right, it is necessary to continue thinking about it,” Orsi underlined.

Orsi's main rival at the FA primaries, Carolina Cosse, expressed her “respect” for the “enormous effort that represents for those who undertook this crusade to have achieved it so quickly.

Former Presidential Secretary and arguably the main contender on behalf of the ruling Multicolor coalition Álvaro Delgado insisted that ”we are on the side of defending the savings of Uruguayans, the other is a catastrophe“ in the making because ”this is a plebiscite against the social security system.“ Delgado also said he was ”worried“ that the Frente Amplio did not have a ”firm“ stance regarding this issue.

However, ”the people are going to have to decide and no presidential candidate or political party will be able to avoid their responsibility to tell the people what the direction is,“ Delgado also stressed. ”This is not a plebiscite against the reform promoted by this government, this is a plebiscite against the social security system,“ he insisted while pledging to campaign ”against this proposal that repeals the system and that confiscates the savings we have made with our work voluntarily.“

”We are on the side of defending the savings of Uruguayans and ensuring pensions. We understand that the best thing is that the system lasts and that people can keep their savings and have the guarantee that the money is there. The other thing is a catastrophe, we do not know what is going to happen and we do not know how to finance it,“ he explained. ”We are going to take care of the people and their savings,” he stressed.

Uruguay's Congress voted to change the country's social security system with the support of the ruling Multicolor coalition despite campaign promises in the opposite sense by President Luis Lacalle Pou.