The referendum voted in favor of repealing or ratifying 135 of the 476 articles of the Urgent Consideration Law (LUC), which was passed in 2020 and generated reforms in several areas, including education, security, labor, public administration and finance.
Previous polls had predicted a consultation with a tight result that, in addition to the very future of the initiative, will air or erode the remainder of the Executive’s mandate – three years – and will mark at least part of the opposition’s strategy.
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A victory for the No means, without a doubt, a boost for Lacalle Pou, who could be encouraged to promote other central reforms in the structure of the Uruguayan State.
That is why the five parties that make up the government alliance put their main leaders to play in the campaign and the president himself got involved, first timidly and then fully, to the point that the No campaign ended with a press conference that he himself headed.
On the Yes side, the Broad Front still has -even if the result was adverse- the satisfaction of having been able to show an enormous power of territorial presence, a notorious mobilization even in times of pandemic and a revitalization that even went through its process of renewal of authorities.
Due to the complexity of what is voted on, it was an atypical campaign: the content of dozens of articles of an extensive law had to be explained.
For this reason, more than great acts, it was a face-to-face task, raising awareness in small meetings, with a great presence in the media and talks-debates in the areas in which it was possible.
The LUC was sanctioned on July 8, 2020 in Congress, with 476 articles, although it had entered with 501.
Among other issues, limits the right to strike, declares picketing in public or private spaces illegal, establishes the figure of “criminal appearance” and increases the limit of cash transactions up to 100,000 dollars, which enables money laundering and allows the evasion of taxes according to his detractors.
In addition, it eliminates the obligation of initial education and cuts the functions of the State in the area, creates a mode of express eviction of rented housing and avoids the cooperative model of house construction, and enables the closure and/or privatization of strategic areas. of the state oil company Ancap.
Since the restoration of democracy in Uruguay in 1985, only 13 bills were sent to the Legislature with this declaration of urgent consideration: 9 were approved and 4 were rejected, but only 3 of those bills were in the “omnibus law” category.
In addition to the PIT-CNT and the Broad Front, the Commission for Yes brings together the Federation of Uruguayan University Students (FEUU), the Feminist Intersocial, the Association of Social Workers of Uruguay (ADASU), the Intersocials of Salto, Carmelo, Rivera , Soriano, Artigas, Costa de Oro, Tacuarembó, Paysandú, Treinta y Tres and Fray Bentos; Mothers and Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared, and the Uruguayan Federation of Housing Cooperatives for Mutual Aid (Fucvam).
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