Robert Bouvierthe current vice president of the Uruguayan state telecommunications company, Antel, will take over as environment minister after the resignation of Adrian Peña (Photo)who left the position after admitting to lying about having a college degree.
As indicated to the press by the outgoing minister -who may possibly assume a seat in the Senate-, the political sector that Peña leads within the ruling Colorado Party (PC), Ciudadanos, decided to appoint Bouvier, who also integrates this formation, as his successor in office.
The news was celebrated by the president of Antel, Gabriel Gurmendez, also with red lines, who congratulated Bouvier via Twitter. “It is good to know that this professional and committed public servant is joining the Government,” he said.
Appointed as Minister of the Environment since the creation of the portfolio in 2020, at the beginning of the management of the center-right Luis Lacalle PouPeña announced his resignation on Monday after learning that he had boasted of a university degree that he did not achieve and, when justifying himself, not admitting that he has one course left to obtain it.
The outcome of the controversy, which came to light with an article in the local weekly Search Last Thursday, he was the object of reactions in the internal politics of the country, to which he is the sixth minister to be relieved by Lacalle Pou and the fourth from the PC.
Criticism from the ruling party and the opposition
Within the center-right PC, one of the two oldest in the country, there were both expressions of support and criticism. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, ope pasquetHe said that Peña is retiring “like a gentleman” and “he will return as the tireless fighter that he is.”
The former president and general secretary of the PC, Julio Maria Sanguinetti, He assured local television Telemundo that he “had a trip” due to an episode with a “kind of childish” connotation but that his resignation “makes sense” because “he was wrong”.
However, the former vice chancellor Carolina Achewho resigned last December -after being accused of failing to warn that a passport would be given to drug trafficker Sebastián Marset and after losing support within the PC-, was especially critical.
“Hard with those below, lukewarm with those above”, he wrote on Twitter, to which he added that in the PC “they raised the ethical bar so high, that they go down” and, upon receiving a reply in defense of Peña, questioned him with “(Is Peña) still in the Senate?”
from the opponent broad front (FA, left), Senator Daniel Caggiani He said that the resignation “corresponded” but that it is not right that there is “a double ethical standard of some members of the government.”
On the other hand, the Minister of Education and Culture, Pablo da Silveirafrom the also pro-government National Party, told the press on Tuesday that society should reflect on episodes like the one starring Peña. “Uruguayans as a society have lost reference points regarding the importance of a university degree,” he pointed.
