In Brazil Dilma Roussef triumphs and in Ukraine the pro-Europeans, while in Uruguay we go to the ballot. These are the results of the last intense electoral weekend in both corners of the planet.
In the largest South American country, the outgoing president of the Workers' Party was re-elected with 51,64% of the votes, against the 48,36% obtained by her opponent of the centre-right, Aecio Neves, at the end of a bitter electoral campaign which divided Brazilians by social class. Rousseff's victory was based on three million votes, in a country where over 100 million people went to vote.
"Dialogue is the first commitment of my new mandate", Roussef immediately declared in front of the crowd of his supporters, promising to be "a better president than he has been up to now". The newly re-elected then assured her commitment to relaunching the economy, fighting "rigorously against inflation" and giving "more impetus to the economic sectors, including industry, to return to our pace of growth which guarantees a high level of employment and the revaluation of wages”. Finally, Roussef has guaranteed even more commitment in the fight against corruption, after the scandals that have tarnished the image of her party.
In Ukraine, however, the exit polls photograph this situation: overwhelming pro-Western majority (over 70%) of six parties, two of which are strongly nationalist; weaker peace president and much stronger war premier than expected; a single pro-Russian party and the Communists disappeared for the first time since 1993. The early Ukrainian parliamentary elections therefore seem to complicate the dialogue with Putin on the conflict in the east of the country.
Data that also reveal the surprise of Samopovich (Self Help), the young party of the mayor of Lviv Andrii Sadovii full of activists and fighters, projected into third place with a percentage between 12,5% and 14,2%, and the flop of the radical party of the ultranationalist Oleg Liashko, stuck at 6%-7%, when until yesterday it was given by the polls as the second party with 13%.
Also noteworthy is the collapse of the Homeland party of Iulia Timoshenko, a former icon of the Orange Revolution and political prisoner under President Ianukovich, which finished just above the threshold of 5% (5,6%-6%). Definitely out Pravi Sektor (2,4%), the ultra-nationalist far-right party with Nazi connotations, the military driving force of the Maidan.
"Ukraine voted massively for an irreversible rapprochement with Europe", commented the head of state, who today also starred in a blitz in Kramatorsk, in the east of the country, to thank the soldiers. But its weakening risks having repercussions not so much on European integration and reforms as on dialogue with Putin to consolidate the peace process in the eastern regions, where there was no vote in the areas controlled by pro-Russian rebels and the turnout in those controlled by Kiev was around 25%, half of the national one (53%).
All the more so since the Popular Front of Prime Minister Arseni Iatseniuk, one of Putin's fiercest critics, got stronger, catapulted behind the president's bloc with over 21%: his reconfirmation at the helm of the next government therefore appears inevitable, with the risk of a long-distance duel between president and prime minister, as in the times of Iushenko and Timoshenko, the two heroes of the orange revolution who ended up at loggerheads.
Samopovich, on the other hand, presents himself as a moderate nationalist force but will be able to claim an adequate presence in the government, unlike the radical party (if it is embarked on the coalition) of Svoboda (Freedom, 5,8%-6,3%) and Timoshenko.
Pro-Russians will be (below) represented only by the Opposition Bloc (6,6%-7,8%), avatar of former President Yanukovych's Party of Regions, led by his controversial former energy minister Iuri Boiko and sponsored by two oligarchs: Rinat Akhmetov, the richest man in the country, and Dmytro Firtash. Ukraine did not make it Strong by Serghiei Tighipko (2,6%), former deputy prime minister of Yanukovych. For the first time after 20 years, even the Communists (2,9%) are out.
Infine in Uruguay, the vote for the presidential and legislative elections ended with the relative affirmation of the left-wing candidate, Tabaré Vazquez, who with 46% of the votes goes to the ballot against Luis Lacalle Pou, of the centre-right, while there is much uncertainty on the outcome of the parliamentarians.
Vazquez, 74, already the first president of Uruguay, should therefore be able to succeed José Mujica, the atypical ex-tupamaro president who, although very popular, was unable to run for a second consecutive term on the basis of the constitutional provisions.
In any case, the runoff challenge is not decided from the outset. Luis Lacalle Pou, just 41 years old, with a dazzling career and a meteoric rise, was a real surprise by winning the primaries of the National Party (of the center right) and in the run-off he could collect all the votes of his traditional allied party, the Colorado Party , with a contribution of 15% of the votes.
