Uruguay: Yamandú Orsi will be the new president

Yamandú Orsi will be the new president of Uruguay, after obtaining victory this Sunday in the second round of elections with 52.1% of the votes. In this way, President Luis Lacalle Pou, of the National Party, leaves his mandate to give way to a new era of the Frente Amplio, a force that governed the country from 2005 to 2020.

A disciple of former president José “Pepe” Mujica, Orsi won the general elections in October, but had not reached the required majority (50%+1 of the votes), so he ran in the runoff against Álvaro Delgado, who represented the ruler. National Party.

Upon learning of the victory, the president-elect, who will take office on March 1, 2025, led a speech in which he stated: “The country of freedom, equality and also fraternity triumphs once again.”

During his campaign, the Frente Amplio candidate listed 48 government proposals based on three main axes: economy, social protection and public security.

Their proposals highlight inclusion, social justice and human rights. In that sense, it proposes offering financial subsidies for initial and primary education; and increase the amount of food cards and vouchers for low-income families.

It also proposes the creation of the First Home Plan, which seeks to facilitate access to mortgage credit; the implementation of collective housing for older adults; and simplification of procedures for housing cooperatives.

Another of the points strongly raised in its platform is the fight against organized crime and drug trafficking.

The Frente Amplio, the center-left bloc that it represents, has historically expressed itself in favor of gender policies, such as the so-called homosexual “marriage” and the decriminalization of abortion. Orsi has a speech considered moderate, he proposes a “modern left” and a unity government, with emphasis on openness to dialogue and without sudden changes to the policies developed during the last five years by the opposition government, according to what he says. Reuters.

The Catholic Church in Uruguay

Uruguay is a country with very little Catholic population. It is a secular nation since the Constitution of 1918, which states that the country does not profess any religion. Christmas and Easter are not officially celebrated there.

According to Uruguay’s result document, in the 2023 report of Latinobarometer47.2% of Uruguayans do not profess any religion, and 36.5% declare themselves Catholic.

Venezuela follows on the list with the smallest number of Catholics, with 48.1%; Brazil, with 52.8%; and in third place Chile, with 56.1%.

Paraguay has the highest percentage of Catholics in South America, with 80.4%, followed by Ecuador, Argentina and Peru, respectively.

Abortion, drugs, gender and euthanasia in Uruguay

Regarding policies linked to the care of life from conception to its natural end, in Uruguay abortion has been decriminalized since 2012 within the first 12 weeks of gestation, being the third country in Latin America to adopt a measure of this type.

In 2013, Uruguay became the first country in the world to legalize the sale and cultivation of marijuana, both controlled by the State, in addition to its possession, recreational and medicinal uses, and uses for industrial purposes. With this law, Uruguayans can freely plant and consume 10 grams of marijuana per week.

Also in 2013, Uruguay was the second country in Latin America—after Argentina—to approve civil unions between people of the same sex.

In the case of euthanasia, in 2023 the project that seeks to regulate the practice obtained half a sanction in the Chamber of Deputies. In July 2024, the Frente Amplio presented a motion to treat it in the Senate on a “serious and urgent” basis, but the National Party voted against it and its treatment was stopped.

On that occasion, Orsi seemed surprised about it: “I thought this was going to come out, but I don’t want to speak without being informed,” he told Telenight Uruguay.

Yamandu Orsi and the Catholic Faith

Yamandú Orsi received a Catholic education but today he declares himself an agnostic. In one interview With the Argentine journalist Alejandro Fantino he said: “I am very respectful, the truth is, I have learned to greatly value, over time, the weight and value that belief or the world of religion has.”

“I am one of those who think that there is something… I was an altar boy, I remember the prayers, all of them. I was going with my (mom). I have a lot, not only respect, but over time you begin to appreciate that there is a part of the human being that from politics or philosophy (…) we have not known how to dimension.”

In recent months, the presidential candidates participated in dialogue with the local Church, in the figure of the Archbishop of Montevideo and Primate of Uruguay, Cardinal Daniel Sturla.

After the meetingYamandú Orsi stated that from their space they share “100% the central concerns of the Church” because they are “an essential part of the life of Uruguay.” The Catholic Church, he noted, “is in the same neighborhoods where our people move.”

“Childhood, addictions, rehabilitation, the situation of mothers who are heads of household,” he listed, “are the same concerns,” he said, raising “the need for real articulation” within the framework of a society that “tends to fragment” and produces “the distance between the State and some central actors.”

After the meeting, Cardinal Sturla pointed out that from the Church they brought “the proposals of situations that concern us Uruguayans and that concern the Church in the educational issue, in the issue of addictions, prison pastoral, the issue of the family, life, the defense of life and of women, vulnerable women”, and they valued the service of politics as an instrument for the common good.