Uruguay’s new leftist President Yamandú Orsi takes office; faces financial balancing act

Yamandú Orsi inaugurated as Uruguay's President, promising to strengthen social safety net and reverse economic stagnation.

Yamandú Orsi, a telegenic left-leaning former mayor and history teacher, took office as Uruguay's new President on Saturday (March 1, 2025), at the helm of a government that has pledged to strengthen the social safety net while reversing years of economic stagnation.

The inauguration of Mr. Orsi (57) marks the return of Uruguay’s Broad Front — a centre-left mix of moderates, communists and hardline trade unionists — after a five-year interruption by the country’s outgoing conservative President, Luis Lacalle Pou.

Cheers erupted as Mr. Orsi recited the oath of office before Congress on Saturday (March 1, 2025) in Uruguay’s capital of Montevideo. Outside the chamber, in the city's main square, thousands of Uruguayans watching his swearing-in on giant screens shouted in support.

The ceremony came three months after Mr. Orsi's Presidential victory in a remarkably civilised election race between two moderates, praised as an antidote to the polarisation gripping the region. In his speech, he took a dig at growing disillusionment with democratic norms across Latin America, which has resulted in a shift to the right, from neighbouring Argentina to El Salvador.

“We all know well that we have to treasure our democratic construction in times where exclusionary logic and expressions of distrust in traditional politics proliferate,” Mr. Orsi said in his inaugural address before a gathering of domestic and foreign leaders at the legislative palace in Montevideo.

He declared: “Let us always be adversaries, but never enemies. And let us distance ourselves as far as possible from cynicism.”

The night before the ceremony, Mr. Orsi dined in Montevideo with his like-minded regional counterparts, including Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Colombia's Gustavo Petro and Chile's Gabriel Boric.