Rags-to-riches entrepreneur now a rising political star in Uruguay.
| Autor | Gaudin, Andres |
Uruguay's two historic conservative parties, the Partido Nacional (National Party, PN, or Blanco, White Party) and the Partido Colorado (Red Party, PC), continue to pay a heavy price for the failed "Concertacion" strategy they employed in last year's municipal elections.
The strategy was to create a partnership party, the Partido de la Concertacion, to compete specifically in greater Montevideo and hopefully wrest control of the prized department from the progressive Frente Amplio (Broad Front, FA) (NotiSur, June 5, 2015). But the limited experiment in joining forces came up short, leaving the PC, for the first time in its 180-year history, without representation in the Montevideo legislature. And it helped spawn a new political force, led by businessman Edgardo Novick, that could end up costing both the Blancos and the Colorados votes in future elections.
Of the 13 ediles (members of the municipal governing council) elected from the Concertacion, four returned to the fold of the PN. The rest, all Colorados, migrated from their parent party, allying themselves instead with Novick, the Concertacion's top Montevideo candidate for the council, who continues to assert himself--much to the chagrin of many Blancos and Colorados--as an independent and increasingly influential player. The wealthy entrepreneur and his allies are now preparing to formally launch themselves as a new political entity before the end of the year, perhaps called Mejor Juntos (better together). "We still haven't decided on the name," Novick said of his spin-off group.
In addition to the nine Montevideo-area ediles, the businessman-turned-politician has also managed to bring a senator and four deputies on board, giving the Concertacion, as it's still generally referred to, national, rather than just departmental reach. The five lawmakers were all elected in 2014 under the Colorado banner.
Scratching backs
The situation is noteworthy not just because of how unusual it is, but also because Novick, despite his radically right-wing leanings, somehow maintains optimal relations with the FA-led Montevideo and national governments, headed by Intendente Daniel Martinez and President Tabare Vazquez respectively.
In Montevideo, votes from the Novick-allied ediles provided the majority needed to launch Fondo Capital I, a blind trust created jointly by the intendencia (departmental government) and private business sector to fund improvements to the department's roads and sewage system...
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