MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay’s ruling coalition appeals for unity and “ideal presidential ticket”

Mujica and Astori have yet to reach an agreement on the ruling coalition’s ticket.

The Uruguayan ruling coalition held Tuesday night a last joint rally before Sunday’s presidential nomination primary evoking the past and calling for unity behind the winning ticket. However one of the three hopefuls said that an agreement on program “contents” will have to be reached first.

Public opinion polls indicate that former guerrilla leader and Senator Jose Mujica leads two to one over ex Economy Minister Danilo Astori, who has been unable to campaign since he is recovering from a severe pneumonia with possible cardiac consequences. A third distant is Marcos Carambula, mayor of Uruguay’s second electoral circumscription behind Montevideo, Canelones.

In a pre-taped video screened to thousands of militants at the rally in a closed basket-ball stadium, Astori admitted he had “serious differences” with Mujica and anticipated that any agreement on the “ideal presidential ticket” (Mujica-Astori) will depend on negotiations related to the coalition’s government program.

Astori, a former Economics School Dean with a Communist background that in the last decade embraced orthodox classical economics, --with social responsibility--, said the video on the differences with his rival, --whom he never mentioned--, were “not to gain votes, but rather to underline program content”.

“You well know I have disagreed with proposals that have surfaced from our lines. This is not a strategy to gain votes. We have differences, and in some cases they are serious. Worst would be to deny them or hide them”, said Astori “therefore we need to negotiate contents and after discussions arrive to the best possible presidential ticket”.

Although Mujica recently was “tested” (and “approved with high marks”) by International Monetary Fund experts who met with presidential hopefuls from all Uruguayan parties, Astori questions some of Mujica’s campaign promises such as an “export dollar”, subsidies to promote “home building”, if necessary “transitory budget misbalances”, overall a more social inspired economy, “which will attack on the established system from the right (so as not to scare investors and the concept of private property) and then move to the progressive left”.

Mujica also mentioned that the private pensions’ savings scheme, following on Argentina’s example, should be nationalized. But he later denied such a possibility.

“He (Mujica) hasn’t the remotest idea of how an economy functions or how to manage a country”, Astori was quoted by the Montevideo press a few days ago when he left the hospital for home recovery.

In his speech Mujica admitted differences with Astori but underlined that “outside we’re invincible, but they can kill us from inside”. However differences inside the ruling coalition are manageable, but compared to those with the opposition “there’s no way we can compromise”.

But in spite of Astori’s video and position, speeches appealed to militants for a massive turnout next Sunday to confirm that “we are the main political force” of Uruguay.

The Broad Front won in October 2004, with no need for a run-off in November, with 50.9% of votes and opinion polls show it currently has a solid support of 42/43%, but the joint opposition over the last two years has grown from a simple majority to a consolidated absolute majority. In this scenario if the ruling coalition fails the first hurdle, the decisive November could be almost insurmountable.

Mujica and Astori are aware of this and know that they need each other if they are to attract the independent voters.

The two candidates, Mujica and Carambola, and the Broad Front chairman Jorge Brovetto emphasized the “move backwards” which would mean a victory next October by the traditional “right wing” parties of Uruguay.

“The alternative is to continue changing and progressing or we face a return to the past. We don’t want them back; they are gone and they will not return” (the opposition parties) yelled Carambula.

Nevertheless the stage had another surprise: the Astori (orthodox) followers sat on the left, and Mujica and his (populist-pragmatic) team on the right, while Carambula bridged the arch.

The fact is that the original idea almost two years ago was that the presidential ticket should be Astori and Mujica as proposed and announced by President Tabare Vazquez. However Mujica who has the largest share of the ruling catch-all coalition not only was victorious in the party’s congress but reached an understanding with the Communist party which sealed a majority and ensured him control over the trade unions and “street militancy”.

Furthermore he ignored Vazquez’ request to accept the Astori/Mujica ticket saying “the boys want me to run; I have the charm and the votes, Danilo (Astori) is good with numbers”. Since then relations between the two hopefuls have been strained, on the one side the university professionals, on the other the populist, pragmatic Mujica with his coarse appealing communication code.

Earlier in the day the three visited Astori at his home, expecting to reach an agreement previous to the “unity” rally and hopefully with a “no surprises” ticket understanding.

But on leaving Mr. Astori’s place all visitors coincided that they only talked about the “Danilo’s health”. Brovetto said “it was merely a protocol visit, no discussions about the ticket and the vice-president post”.