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IN MEMORIAM: Tabare Vazquez, 1940-2020.
In politics, for the left to achieve dramatic things and real change, it often has to talk to the centre but act to the left. Tabare Vazquez, who died earlier today, encapsulated that. He was Uruguay's best President in almost a century.
In politics, for the left to achieve dramatic things and real change, it often has to talk to the centre but act to the left. Tabare Vazquez, who died earlier today, encapsulated that. He was Uruguay's best President in almost a century.
This was someone whose first term in office, between 2005 and early 2010, oversaw stunning falls in poverty and inequality, a hugely successful ban on smoking in public places, provided a laptop for every schoolchild, AND dramatic economic growth and fiscal discipline.
This was someone who never went down a populist path; who saw the huge blunders by his counterparts in places like Venezuela and Argentina and heeded them. Someone who governed for everyone, in the finest traditions of José Batlle y Ordóñez, Uruguay's greatest President ever.
And by doing that, he was able to achieve so, so much more than had he been a more traditional leftist figure in the mould of his more celebrated successor, Jose Mujica. Mujica is much loved all over the world - but in truth, he messed up much of Vazquez' legacy.
A legacy in which the public, which had never put the left into power at any point since Uruguay's birth in 1830, grew to trust not just in its compassion, but its competence. Uruguay's two old parties were completely out of touch with the people. Vazquez understood the future.
You really can't overstate what an accomplishment it was for the Frente Amplio (Broad Front) to overturn 174 years of history in sweeping to a landslide in 2004 - then two more landslides in 2009 and 2014. To become Uruguay's natural party of government. Vazquez did that.
And he did it by, even in opposition, insisting on behaving like a professional, competent government-in-waiting. Not for him the tribal, internecine conflicts which the left is so prone to. Vazquez was Presidential even before he became President.
I used to teach someone who, to put it mildly, was not exactly a fan of the left. And who blamed Mujica for absolutely anything that went wrong.
When Pepe won the Presidency in 2009, she sat watching the results in despair. Disbelief. In tears too, bless her.
When Pepe won the Presidency in 2009, she sat watching the results in despair. Disbelief. In tears too, bless her.
There'd be moments when we'd spar in class - because well, my politics were much closer to Pepe's. Yet when we had coffee after the Frente Amplio won again in 2014, she was completely sanguine. And why?
"Because Vazquez is not left".
That's how he won and how he dominated.
"Because Vazquez is not left".
That's how he won and how he dominated.
He dominated by appealing to ALL sections of Uruguayan society: especially moderates and independents. Thanks to him, cities and professionals which had always voted Colorado (liberal - but more latterly, right wing) were transformed into the Frente Amplio's base.
He dominated by relying heavily on the masterly Danilo Astori as Finance Minister. Astori would shoot down the left's more stupid ideas - yet oversaw a massive economic success story. He and Vazquez had been rivals for decades; then they worked together quite brilliantly.
It was the announcement that Astori would be Vazquez' Finance Minister which ended any remaining doubt over the 2004 election; which assauged any remaining fears among Uruguayans that the left could be trusted in government.
Again, you can't overstate what an achievement it was to oversee a coalition containing communists, liberals, socialists, social democrats, centrists and independents - and to achieve so much while it continued to hold together. For fully 15 years.
Try imagining anything of the kind in Britain. It's impossible. Look at how the British left and centre are always at each other's throats. Not in Uruguay; well, not for the most part, anyway. Again, that was quite massively because of Vazquez, who commanded respect.
His second government, sadly, was not a patch on his first. The Uruguayan constitution, quite wonderfully, does not allow consecutive terms for a President - so he left office in 2010 amid unprecedented approval ratings. But when he returned, trouble was looming.
Trouble with the economy. Trouble with his disastrous choice as Vice-President, Raul Sendic. Trouble with Ancap, the state oil company which needed to be recapitalised. Trouble with tax rises which Vazquez had promised he wouldn't make. Trouble with the teaching unions too.
A lot of Vazquez' decades-won authority and gravitas started to fade quite dramatically after he overruled teachers' right to strike in 2015 - strikes which were causing chaos - then backed down. The left, naturally, were livid at his initial decision.
Corruption around Sendic and complete loss of public trust in Astori's economic management did the rest. It remains remarkable how close the Frente Amplio came to winning a fourth term last year - because its third one had been a tired, exhausted mess.
But that shouldn't take away from Vazquez' achievements overall. He governed, for the most part, with enormous common sense. The tax reform he implemented in 2007 was pivotal to everything that followed.
Financial inclusion in 2016, guaranteeing bank accounts to all workers, was also a very good, overdue move. Major economic and social improvements occurred under the Frente Amplio's watch: including a universal social insurance-based health system which has been a huge success.
His biggest mistakes? I'd pick out three.
1. That promise not to increase taxes during the 2014 campaign. A promise which came back to destroy his government.
2. Vetoing the legalisation of abortion because of his personal beliefs. Anti-democratic and wrong.
1. That promise not to increase taxes during the 2014 campaign. A promise which came back to destroy his government.
2. Vetoing the legalisation of abortion because of his personal beliefs. Anti-democratic and wrong.
Abortion went on to be legalised under Mujica.
3. To my continued amazement, he supported a Uruguayan default in 2002 - while Astori, more or less alone in the Frente Amplio, stood against it and was quite massively vindicated. Look at Argentina now. Look at Uruguay now. QED.
3. To my continued amazement, he supported a Uruguayan default in 2002 - while Astori, more or less alone in the Frente Amplio, stood against it and was quite massively vindicated. Look at Argentina now. Look at Uruguay now. QED.
But all leaders, including great leaders, make mistakes. In the credit column can be found:
- Huge fall in poverty (Uruguay now has the largest middle class and least poverty in Latin America)
- Major drop in inequality: Uruguay's GINI coefficient went from 46.40 to 39.50
- Huge fall in poverty (Uruguay now has the largest middle class and least poverty in Latin America)
- Major drop in inequality: Uruguay's GINI coefficient went from 46.40 to 39.50
