At 89 years old, José “Pepe” Mujica appears lucid. “We don’t change the worldrecognizes the former left-wing Uruguayan president (2010-2015). But we fight for better distribution. » During his tenure he was nicknamed “the poorest president in the world” because he had preferred to stay on his modest farm, in Rincón del Cerro, 15 kilometers from Montevideo, and continue growing his flowers there, rather than settle in the presidential palace.
Google Maps says: “Shacra (farm) by José Pepe Mujica » on the site of his house, which is accessed by a dirt road. Around him, a jumble of tools, plastic chairs, plants that grow anarchically… Below the gallery, boxes of dried corn. As soon as his health allows, José Mujica plows his field with his tractor. Since esophageal cancer was discovered in April – from which he is cured, he assures – the crops have been somewhat abandoned.
However, in November he participated in two meetings as part of the presidential campaign of the Popular Participation Movement, the party he helped found in 1989. Its candidate, Yamandu Orsi, will compete in the second round on Sunday, November 24 against the right. in power. On October 19, Mujica was on stage during the campaign close of the first round, drawing tears from the crowd when he said he was fighting death and finding himself. “at the end of the game”, concluding: “See you forever. »
José Mujica receives the world in his hut under the trees with his wife, former senator and former vice president Lucia Topolansky (2017-2020), the day after Donald Trump’s victory in the United States, on November 6. A victory that attributes to a “crisis of democracy” : “The fact that the United States, the country with the highest rate of brilliant scientists, thinkers and academics, has elected someone like Trump shows that contemporary democracy is sick and does not provide answers to the complexity that is growing in this world. »
Milei “is going to be destroyed”
Opposite Uruguay, in Argentina, the ultraliberal and vociferous Javier Milei came to power in December 2023. His election does not surprise José Mujica. “Why was Hitler elected in Germany? Hyperinflation is driving people crazy [l’Argentine a clos l’année 2023 avec une inflation de 200 %]. The Weimar Republic was buried by inflation. He says he wants to destroy the State, but he is going to destroy himself. And Argentina will pay a very high price. »
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