Yamandú Orsi, the candidate for the leftist Frente Amplio (FA), became the next president of Uruguay after obtaining almost 49.8% of the votes in the presidential runoff last Sunday. He beat his National Party (PN) opponent, Álvaro Delgado by 4 points. Delgado obtained 45.8% of the votes. Delgado acknowledged his defeat, and President Luis Lacalle Pou congratulated the winner.

The victorious candidate beat Delgado by more than 95,000 votes in what was expected to be a very close race. Orsi represents the return to power of Uruguay’s leftist coalition that ruled the country between 2005 and 2020, with the late two-term president Tabaré Vázquez and José Mujica, who sponsored the president-elect.

A “national dialogue” president 

In his victory speech, the president-elect said, “the country of freedom and equality triumphs once again.”

“No one will be left behind, economically, socially, and politically,” he added.

Orsi also advocated for national unity, describing himself as “a president who calls for national dialogue, again and again, in order to find the best solutions.”

“I will be the president who builds a more integrated society, a more integrated country, where despite our differences, no one will be left behind,” he insisted.

A history professor sponsored by veteran left-wing leader José ‘Pepe’ Mujica — still one of the most popular politicians in Uruguay — Orsi had been a two-term mayor of the Canelones province before securing the Frente Amplio nomination.

Acknowledgments by Lacalle Pou and Delgado

President Lacalle Pou and his former chief of staff Delgado acknowledged Orsi’s victory as soon as his winning trend was deemed irreversible. The president confirmed through his X account that he called Orsi to congratulate him and said he was “at his service” for the future to “start the transition as soon as he considers it pertinent.”

“Without any guilt feelings, yet with sadness, we can congratulate the person who won and do so sincerely and heartedly with a very republican spirit,” said Delgado when he recognized Orsi’s win.

Thinking about what is coming, the former Secretary of the Presidency warned: “Elections are won and lost, one thing is losing elections and another is being defeated. We are not defeated!”

*With information from Ambito.com