A critique of Yamandú Orsi’s leadership style and the fiscal tensions surrounding Gabriel Oddone’s management.

SOMETHING IS MISSING HERE… WHAT IS MISSING

By Dr. Nelson Jorge Mosco Castellano

The phrase in the title is yet another of those tautological rocket phrases that President Orsi insists on sustaining despite warnings about the dual interpretations it generates among the audience.

The art of governing… by omitting?

From the perspective of the opposition and various critical analysts, Yamandú Orsi’s government appears to have established a new management standard: the “diplomacy of prudent silence” and the art of dodging the issue with an earthy, folksy smile, or a particular movement of the eyebrows and a complicit wink.
While ministries move forward autonomously amid rhetorical juggling in an attempt to justify their blunders, reality quite frankly reveals that what is “missing” is direction, leadership, substantive measures to adjust to reality and shelve the narrative; and above all, the use of some grounding wire that would make it possible to connect with the stagnant economic and productive situation.
What follows is a review of what is being criticized and what the authorities —with Orsi himself at the helm— seem to address through the fine art of omission, repeating that old prank of ringing a doorbell and running away.
A leadership style regarded as excessively diffuse is being questioned, one based on anarchy, malicious criticism of the previous government and repair through the “orchestration of multiparty commissions.” Responding to complex problems with a poetic ellipsis (ma non tanto) or a detour into nostalgia for Canelones after first rehearsing an affront.
For critics, Orsi applies the maxim that if no drastic decision is made, nobody gets angry; the opposite, on the other hand, provokes resentment. And if inaction produces stagnation, or worse, decline, then the response applied indiscriminately is: “give us time” or “there are communication problems.”
When asked about the country’s precise direction, the implicit answer seems to be a relaxed: “Don’t rush us, che, Uruguay always sorts itself out with a little dialogue and mate.”
Omissions regarding the internal clashes within the Broad Front are covered up with tours of the committees, involving the sacrifice of descending from Olympus into the well, where what matters is not explaining and justifying, but reflecting on obstacles, frustrations, the opposition’s blame, and greeting people.
Liberal and center-right analysts warn of an Economy Minister caught between the left’s hyperbolic campaign promises and the harsh fiscal reality.
He is accused of timidity toward public spending and of sending confusing signals on taxes and competitiveness; but the defensive argument is: “we are fulfilling the program people voted for from a left-wing government.” All while a henchman is sent to the committee to explain that what they are asking for is an impossible dream postponed ad in aeternum.
Whenever clear figures on the deficit or adjustments are demanded, the official narrative operates under the motto: “Numbers don’t lie, but sometimes it’s better to let them rest for a little while without bothering them.”
Economic projections are handled with such prudence that they verge on the invisible, inaudible or inoperative. When it is pointed out that the promise of multiplying the loaves alongside hunger does not add up, taxpayers are left waiting for the miracle of the blanket of self-generated growth, which never arrives, along with the threat of inventing taxes that do not look like taxes, while the citizens’ blanket keeps shrinking as money is spent on trips, ranches, dams and multimillion-dollar subsidies.
The great tragicomedy of the Orsi administration centers on the cardiovascular health of Economy Minister Gabriel Oddone.
Every time the press questions him about fiscal hardship, the short blanket and the absolute lack of resources, the minister breaks into cold sweats that turn hot. The reason? The country does not lack resources; what it has in excess is creative waste and a budgetary party where senior officials seem to be competing to see who can smash the State’s piñata with the greatest audacity.
This is how the festival of financial inconsistency operates, where the official instruction is to demand sacrifices from taxpayers while ministries and autonomous entities practice high-risk sports with other people’s money:

Gabriel Oddone’s couch: the art of responding under fire

The Economy Minister suffers public fits of nerves every time he is confronted with the unsustainable gap between frustrated growth projections, an accountability bill that increases spending despite the defeat, and the reality of public finances that continues to punish those who produce.
Between the ranch with no budget, the custom-made dam, the 180,000 dollars in travel allowances, the 380,000-dollar deficit at ASSE, the Deputy Secretary’s boats and the 120 million for the mutual health provider, Gabriel Oddone has more than enough reasons to keep sweating through every interview. The government’s instruction is clear: save on what matters, spend lavishly on what is convenient, and respond to criticism with an ironic smile while public finances leak from every side.
Tax revenue is not delivering what was promised, but instead of trimming the State’s fat, the choice is technical autism, or responding irritably to the evidence that the accounts do not add up anywhere.
“Don’t talk to me about the deficit, or the twenty-five-thousand-peso crowd, and much less about Arbeleche, please, because my blood pressure goes up; look at the charts with blind faith and the fiscal red ink will disappear by itself.”
For Oddone, financial hardship can be solved with a couple of good macroeconomic intentions and by begging the calendar for favorable winds from abroad.
Orsi has the benefit of whispering that he will resign in order to control the disorder on his own side and that of the opposition.
But there is no doubt, we agree with the president: “something is missing here… what is missing.” Elliptically, we assume… the NHP (natural hen product).

Leadership and omission
Fiscal tension
Public spending

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