By Pablo Meriguet on December 9, 2024
Yamandu Orsi
On November 24, the Broad Front won a victory that many assumed was impossible. The old specter of a potentially triumphant right-wing weighed heavily. The alliance between all the right-wing parties in the second round made the center-left foresee a negative outcome. This had happened in the past with the current president of the country, Lacalle Pou, who had won the Executive despite coming in second in the first round.
However, the candidate for the left-center Broad Front, Yamandú Orsi, obtained 49.8% of the votes, against his rival, the right-wing Álvaro Delgado, political heir of Lacalle Pou.
Undoubtedly, the broad resistance sparked by the neoliberal policies of the current president helped the Broad Front to obtain the necessary votes to win in the second round. Additionally, a good portion of the political center of the country opted for a project closer to social democracy, likely due to Orsi’s attitude of conciliation and dialogue.
The victory of the Broad Front was hailed as an important milestone in a continent rocked by political instability.
Who is Yamandú Orsi?
Yamandú Ramón Antonio Orsi Martínez was born in the rural area of Santa Rosa, Canelones department in Uruguay on June 13, 1967. A descendant of Italians and Spaniards, Orsi had an important Catholic education, being an altar boy during his adolescence in his native town, although today he claims to be agnostic. During his adolescence he also dedicated himself to folkloric dance, being part of the municipal ballet that traveled through several South American countries.
Orsi, who grew up with humble roots in the countryside started at the University of the Republic to study International Relations, but he abandoned this career a few weeks later to follow his true passion: teaching history. He practiced this profession throughout the 1990s in the departments of Maldonado, Florida, and Canelones. He is also a fan of the Peñarol soccer team (the country’s most popular team), something no less important in the life of Uruguay, a country that professes an almost religious adoration for soccer. In addition, many of his acquaintances have said that he plays the sport very well, which is symbolic of his figure (something difficult to understand outside certain countries that are as devoted to soccer as the Rio Platense nation).
Mujica’s protégé
During the 1990s, Orsi joined the political group created by former Tupamaros guerrilla fighters, including José (Pepe) Mujica, called Movement of Popular Participation (MPP). MPP is part of the center-left coalition the Broad Front.
In 2005 he was elected Secretary General of the Municipality of Canelones. His life as an elected political official would begin in this way and would become a continuous and surprising ascent. Ten years later, he was elected Mayor of Canelones, the second most populated department of the country, for two consecutive electoral periods, wielding a conciliatory attitude and demonstrating an important capacity to dialogue with allies and adversaries, which, already since the 90’s, caught the attention of several prominent figures of the Broad Front. Orsi states that his great mentors were former President José Mujica (2010-2015) and former Vice President Lucía Topolansky (2017-2020).
Many analysts called Orsi the candidate chosen by Mujica and Topolansky to lead the 2024 presidential elections. For now, their gamble paid off as expected, since Orsi’s somber and mild-mannered attitude allowed him to win the elections against many political forecasts: he added the necessary votes that the Broad Front lacked in the previous elections.
However, Mujica himself had to assume a more combative attitude in the last electoral campaign in the face of Orsi’s more conciliatory attitude. Hence, the former president once declared on Radio Sarandí, that Orsi’s greatest flaw is that he is “too good”.
Orsi has said on several occasions that he is not a Marxist, although he appreciates the analytical tools offered by such political philosophy. Rather, he has declared himself a political progressive and pragmatist. This allowed him to gather many alliances within the Broad Front, and to defeat Carolina Cosse, former mayor of Montevideo, who today is the elected vice-president of Uruguay, in the primaries. He has radically distanced himself from the government of Nicolás Maduro and has professed his admiration for Presidents Lula of Brazil, Boric of Chile, and Petro of Colombia (which, in a way, allows analysts to understand the international position that his future administration will assume).
For now, it remains a question of which path the new president of Uruguay will follow: perhaps one that deepens the social programs carried out by his predecessors of the Broad Front or a government of the center that tries to balance the national political forces.
Source: Peoples Dispatch