On 8 July, Uruguay’s senate approved the Ley de Urgente Consideración (LUC) omnibus reform bill, the last step needed before it can be promulgated into law.
Analysis:
The approval of the LUC is a political win for President Luis Alberto Lacalle Pou, who had made this wide-ranging reform bill a campaign promise and presented it to congress in April despite criticisms from the opposition, not least relating to the bill’s timing in the midst of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. The parties in Lacalle Pou’s ‘multicolour coalition’ successfully pulled together in congress to approve the LUC within the required 90-day timeframe, but to maintain this victory, Lacalle Pou and his government now have to deliver on the contents of the reform, which span a wide range of areas including public security, education, and economic issues.
- After being debated and approved a first time in the senate, and then in the chamber of deputies, the LUC returned to the senate yesterday for a final vote. The 30-member senate approved the changes made to the bill by the chamber of deputies with 18 votes in favour.
- “Great satisfaction in having this necessary, just and popular instrument which we committed to many years ago”, Lacalle Pou tweeted immediately after the vote.
- Members of government and lawmakers from the governing coalition have celebrated the LUC’s approval as a win not just for the multicolour coalition, but also as a successful parliamentary debate between all parties. However, the opposition Frente Amplio (FA) coalition, which voted against the bill yesterday, remains vocally critical of it.
- In its final format, the LUC includes 476 articles. Amongst a multitude of issues, it tables the creation of an environment ministry, which will reportedly be offered to the Partido Colorado (PC, Colorados). The second-largest party in the coalition after Lacalle Pou’s Partido Nacional (PN, Blancos), the PC lost one of its ministerial portfolios with the resignation of Ernesto Talvi as foreign minister last week.
Looking Ahead:
Lacalle Pou is expected to promulgate the LUC into law imminently, and then coordinate with his ministers the necessary regulatory changes it calls for within the government.
In brief: Chile sees inflation continue to fall
* Chile’s national statistics institute (INE) has published inflation figures for June, which show that the consumer price index (CPI) fell by 0.1% month-on-month for the second month in a row, bringing the accumulated rate for 2020 to 1.2%, and the 12-month rate to 2.6%. This drop follows higher than average inflation readings in January and February of this year, when the year-on-year rate reached 3.9%, the highest level of inflation seen in Chile since 2016.