It was celebrated like a goal in the final of a soccer World Cup. The thousands of people waiting for the results of the presidential elections on the Montevideo promenade burst into a loud shout when the screen showed the first exit poll this Sunday. Yamandú Orsi, the candidate of the Frente Amplio (FA), the man chosen by former president José Mujica to regain power for the left, had 49% of the votes, compared to 46.5% for Álvaro Delgado, of the National Party in the Government. The official polls later confirmed Orsi's victory: with 99% counted, he totaled 49.8% compared to his rival's 45.9%, a difference of 92,000 votes in a country of 3.5 million inhabitants. The president, Luis Lacalle Pou, did not wait for the data from the Electoral Court to congratulate the winner. “I called Yamandú Orsi to congratulate him as president-elect of our country and to put myself at his command and begin the transition, as soon as he understands it is relevant,” he wrote on his social networks.
“I am going to be the president who calls for national dialogue again and again,” Orsi said on stage in a speech lasting no more than 10 minutes. “The message cannot be other than embracing the debate of ideas. This is how a democratic republic is built. Long live the political parties of Uruguay. The country of freedom, equality, and also fraternity triumphs once again, which is nothing more and nothing less than tolerance and respect for others. Let's continue down that path,” he added. Delgado responded from the box of defeat: “This coalition is willing that if a hand is needed for the country, we will give them both.”
The Uruguayan left returns to power as of March 1, 2025 after five years of management by the National Party. The right and the center-right participated in the second round under the umbrella of the Republican Coalition, which in addition to the National joined the Colorado party, another century-old force, and three smaller groups, including the extreme right of Cabildo Abierto. But it was not enough to stay in the Government. Although the economic figures are not bad, its candidate, Delgado, failed to seduce an electorate that felt that Uruguay was stagnant. The vote was for a renewal that will not be a violent change of direction, but rather a bet on “safe change,” the motto of the Frente Amplio in the campaign.
Uruguay thus stops the conservative wave that began in Argentina with Javier Milei and was definitively consummated in the United States, with the triumph of Donald Trump. The democracy of this small South American country is an anomaly in a region plagued by the crisis of political parties and dwindling representation. The one in Uruguay was an old-fashioned campaign, with low-intensity confrontations and calls for republican respect.
“It is the victory of a people, a people that is rebellious,” Fernando Pereira, president of the Frente Amplio, told EL PAÍS. “It was thought to be very difficult, but the FA is the force with the most votes. This is the merit of thousands of men and women who worked in the territory, in each locality, in each city, who gave us accommodation on the tours, all the people who helped us make this miracle called Frente Amplio,” he adds. .
Economy, poverty, insecurity
The left returns to the Government with the commitment to maintain macroeconomic stability and improve income distribution, prioritizing the situation of the 10% of the population that lives in poverty. To carry out this task, Orsi appointed Gabriel Oddone, an economist with a social democratic profile who comes from the private sector and has been a consultant to numerous international organizations. Under Oddone's leadership, the FA will seek to accelerate the growth of the economy through policies aimed at promoting investment and increasing productivity. In the last decade, economic growth averaged 1% annually.
The economy is among the main concerns of Uruguayans, according to a classification prepared by the consulting firm Cifra, which is headed by public insecurity. With a rate of 11.2 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, Uruguay's situation is not among the most critical in Latin America, but double the world average. In 2023, Montevideo accounted for 55% of the 382 homicides, which occurred mainly in the poorest neighborhoods in the northeast of the capital, partly associated with the increase in drug trafficking.
The FA aims to provide “immediate responses” to poverty and insecurity based on “ambitious and transformative solutions.” In these two critical areas, it proposes reforming the social protection system to address poverty, which affects 20% of children under six years of age, and creating a Comprehensive System to Fight Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking.
Mujica and the new Parliament
Mujica, 89, voted early in the morning at a school in Cerro, a neighborhood near the farm where he lives. There he spoke of his expectations regarding the coming Government: “I, personally, have nothing to wait for, my nearest future is the cemetery. But I am interested in the fate of young people, who when they are my age are going to live in a very different world,” he expressed. He was also asked about the relationship with the Government of Javier Milei, in Argentina. “We have to try to make it the best possible, but it is difficult,” he said.
In the next legislature, “the need to negotiate” will be imposed, Mujica stressed, in reference to the configuration of the new Parliament that will begin its journey in 2025. “To negotiate, a climate must be created,” he warned. In that sense, the FA has an advantage in the interests of governability because it achieved the majority in the Senate with 16 seats. Another is the situation in the Congress of Deputies, where agreements must be sought to move forward, among other projects, the budget law.
The FA obtained 48 seats in the House of Representatives, two less than those required to achieve an absolute majority. In this scenario, it may be possible to consider holding a separate dialogue with the legislators of the parties that until now make up the ruling coalition and which, together, achieved 49 deputies. Otherwise, the key to the majority would be in the hands of the new member of Parliament: Sovereign Identity, an anti-system, anti-vaccine, anti-Agenda 2030 party, which will have two deputies under the leadership of lawyer Gustavo Salle.
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