MONTEVIDEO.- Álvaro Delgado, the bet of the Uruguayan right for another five years of government, appears the biggest challenge of his career after a life dedicated to politics, where he held senior positions at the legislative and executive levels and is seeking the presidency.
Delgado, 55 years old, According to the exit polls, he is projected for the November 24th runoff as the standard bearer of the ruling coalition. which has its National Party and the Colorado Party, the founding parties of Uruguay, as main partners.
During the campaign he presented himself as “continuity” of the management of President Luis Lacalle Pou, leader of the National Party and the coalition, who leaves power with a high level of popularity. Thin indeed He is the right hand of the president, whose foolproof confidence led him to appoint him as Secretary of the Presidency.
Álvaro Delgado during a campaign rally [e]NICOLAS CELAYA – XinHua
Delgado has not managed to garner as much sympathy as Lacalle Poubut he will have the support of the right and will go in search of the center and the undecided to discount his rival’s advantage, Yamandú Orsi, of the Broad Front. Orsi is projected to be the winner in the first round and will also be a favorite in the second electoral stage.
Born in Montevideo but always linked to the countryside, Delgado graduated as a veterinarian after opting for that career instead of his other passion, law. During university, a third passion came to him, which would surpass the others and would be the compass that would guide his days and his interests: politics.
It was at the university where he cut his teeth as a militant and leader. After graduating and dedicating time to rural production, He left everything and followed his political vocation in the ranks of the National Party. In her personal life, she married in 1997 and has three children, ages 25, 23, and 21.
Starting in 2000, he held various positions and in 2005 he made the leap to Congress, where he held a seat first as a representative and later as a senator.
President Luis Lacalle Pou and presidential candidate Álvaro Delgado, both from the National Party, in a restaurant in MontevideoPABLO PORCIUNCULA – AFP
Perhaps the key moment of his career, which would unknowingly lead him years later to contest the presidency, It was when he established a relationship with Lacalle Pou, whom he met through friends and with whom in 2009 he founded a new and dynamic sector of the National Party called Fresh air.
“We would grab my truck or Luis’s and go out to explore. I and Luis must have more than 100 kilos of mate shared. Two years later we would have eight deputies and some mayor,” Delgado said in an interview, evoking that old militancy from the plain.
He was one of the first to whom Lacalle Pou confided his intention to compete in the 2014 internal elections, his first presidential adventure. “At that moment I didn’t even have 5% voting intention. I told him that it seemed fine to me. There I became the head of Aire Fresco and Luis became the candidate,” Delgado said. His partner performed well, garnering enough votes to enter the runoff, but in that second round he clashed with the popular former president. Tabaré Vázquez, that thus he returned to the government.
Five years later, Lacalle Pou tried again and won the presidency. He quickly summoned his traveling companion, who in those days had been re-elected senator, but he resigned without thinking twice to join the government as Secretary of the Presidency.
A member of the National Party distributes ballots in the streets of MontevideoNatacha Pisarenko – AP
It was March 2020 and everything was yet to be done. Except that a virus that emerged from the depths of China grew until it enveloped the globe in the Covid-19 pandemic, which disrupted the plans of the new president, forced to reorient his plans and face the emergency, when he had not even finished gaining footing in the Executive Tower.
Delgado was the visible face of the government, when it came to calling on the population to social distance, to be patient, and he was the one who had to convey both calm and bad news.
He gained brilliance in the dark uncertainty of the pandemic, placing cold cloths in front of the television and being instrumental in making the health system work. “responsible freedom” that the government proposed, with few restrictions and appealing rather to citizen conscience, to take care of each other.
At the end of 2023 he left his position to launch a campaign for the presidency, and took the first step by comfortably winning the internal elections last June. His call for the continuity of the government is completed with his promise to face “a second floor of transformations”, one of his campaign slogans, which he pronounced again during the closing ceremony in the city of Las Piedras.
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