The Liberal-Verde coalition secured a commanding majority of seats in elections yesterday. Marilena Rosas-Lopez, 38, will swear the Grito Platano on Wednesday before taking office as chair of the first Liberal-led coalition government in thirty years.
Marilena, who will be the youngest Jefe de Cabildo to take office, embodies the new Partido Liberal. Ignoring early cracks about a crippled party president for a crippled party, she turned around the party's fortunes, bringing a confidence, freshness, and pugnaciousness to the Partido Liberal. Marilena centered her campaign on the need for a complete break from the politics of the past – both the old doctrinaire Partido Liberal and the unwillingness of Jefe de Cabildo Hernán Cortazar, 57, to fully break with Negrosa socialism, particularly in industrial policy.
“We're starting the future of Platinea tonight!” Marilena shouted at her party's rally in Corrientes, announcing her victory before the packed crowd. “We've shown everyone what really matters – not corruption but justice, not connections but people. Come Wednesday, we're going to show what a truly free Platinea can do!”
The victory of Liberal-Verde marks an end to the Grisoja coalition. The pact between Cortazar and the Nuevo Partido Radical he broke off from in 1995, concluded in August to maintain a majority government, was formally withdrawn this morning. Cortazar's controversial pact with the NPR, cemented by awarding state-owned aviation company Plavia a no-bid contract for new jet fighters, was roundly criticized as Negrosismo. Dogged by allegations of corruption, Cortazar's coalition never recovered. Of the forty sitting NPR members, 37 Rojas – including party leader Manuel Belem – lost their seats; of the ninety seats held by Cortazar's Moderado Partido Radical-Anarquista, seventy were taken by the Liberal-Verde coalition and other political rivals.
Eighty percent of registered voters – including 85% of registered voters 18-25 years old – cast their ballot yesterday. Turnout resembled the 1995 election, in which Cortazar's MPRA and Bernardini Ferré's Partido Verde broke the NPR-Frente Comunista stranglehold on Platano politics. Exit polling revealed similar concerns to 1995. Yesterday, 35% of voters said that the main issue in their minds in the booth was government corruption, which had been the centerpiece of Cortazar and Ferré's campaign in 1995.
Ferré, 68, turned on the MPRA in June after Cortazar refused to bring the Partido Verde's Counter-Pollution Act to the floor. Ferré pushed for coalition with the Partido Liberal, publicly arguing Marilena's advocacy of cap-and-trade was better than more of Cortazar's broken promises. Despite opposition from such party limelights as Consuela Nasar, who briefly crossed over to the MPRA benches, Ferré successfully negotiated the coalition. At Corrientes, he was all smiles.
The Liberal-Verde coalition will have a full legislative agenda starting Tuesday. Marilena has pledged to break up and privatize inefficient, noncompetitive state-owned industries; to implement a cap-and-trade program, which will auction off annual rights to emit pollutants up to a cap, which can be resold; to reform defense spending and end the process of no-bid contracts; and to reform trade policy with an eye to eventual free trade.
The Republic of Platinea, stretching from Rosario in the South to Puerta Alegre in the North, from Jujuy in the West to Montevideo in the East, is a vibrant multiparty parliamentary democracy. Formed during the collapse of the Viceroyalty of the Plate, Platinea is a cosmopolitan state, having attracted immigrants from cultures as diverse as Lebanon, Italy, China, Germany, Portugal and Japan.
Population: 22.5 million
Area: 378690109 square km
Capital: Montevideo
Provinces: 16
Government: Multiparty, parliamentary unitary democracy; PL-PV coalition led by Jefe de Cabildo Marilena Rosas-Lopez (PL).
Military: 95000 active-duty, divided into 3 branches: Armada Platano, Armada Aérea Platano, and Ejército Platano. Service by draft.
GDP per capita: $26365
GDP: $593.212 billion