Finance drives new wedge into Uruguay's ruling FA
José Mujica, the frontrunner in the ruling Frente Amplio (FA) ahead of June's primary elections, this week advocated lifting banking secrecy, reviving state banks and minimising private banking. His main rival for the FA presidential ticket, the centre-left former finance minister, Danilo Astori, pounced on his comments, saying they undermined confidence in Uruguay's “very solid financial system".
It is the first time Mujica, a left-wing former Tupamaro guerrilla, has set his stool out on finance in the campaign, although he has long held sharply differing views to Astori. He said he did not support the idea of nationalisation, adding, somewhat quizzically, that this would involve “paying for what theoretically is worth nothing". He did say, however, that financial power should not be in the hands of private but state banks, and that banking secrecy had served its time and caused more problems than it provided benefits.
Astori told the foreign press that he completely disagreed with Mujica's views. He said Uruguay's state banks were “solid" while the private banks were suitably regulated. He said that the private banks stimulated state banks to perform better. In a clear reference to Mujica, he said he would not be making “surprising proposals from day to day […] without thinking through the consequences."
President Tabaré Vázquez also chimed in, urging “a lot of care" when treating these issues. Mujica, still smarting from the fact that Vázquez named Astori as his preferred successor, told the national daily Ultimas Noticias in an interview on 30 March that he did not pay any attention to what Vázquez had to say.
The more divisive the FA primary campaign becomes the more difficult it will be to unify the competing factions afterwards for October's presidential elections. While all the focus is on divisions in the FA camp, however, it is worth noting that the main opposition Blancos party is engaged in an acrimonious primary campaign of its own, pitting Jorge Larrañaga, who lost the last elections to Vázquez, against former president Luis Alberto Lacalle. They are neck-and-neck in the polls.