YAMANDU ORSI pledged to strengthen Uruguay’s social safety net and end years of economic stagnation as he became president on Saturday.

The inauguration of the former mayor and history teacher marks the return of Uruguay’s Broad Front – a mix of communists, trade unionists and moderates – after a five-year interruption by the country’s outgoing right-wing president, Luis Lacalle Pou.

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

The ceremony came three months after Mr Orsi’s presidential victory. 

In his first speech as president Mr Orsi 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.

He told the gathering of domestic and foreign leaders: “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.

“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 Inacio Lula da Silva, Colombia’s Gustavo Petro and Chile’s Gabriel Boric.

The Broad Front presided over a historic cycle of economic growth and reduction in poverty during its 15-year rule between 2005 and 2020. 

The coalition also launched pioneering social reforms that won Uruguay international acclaim, including the legalisation of abortion, same-sex marriage and recreational cannabis.

But in 2020, continued inequality and surging crime ushered in Mr Pou’s right-wing government on promises of reforming the bloated state.

Last year, public frustration over the persistence of those problems helped to oust Mr Pou.