MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, March 2, (AP): Yamandú Orsi, a telegenic left-leaning former mayor and history teacher, took office as Uruguay's new president on Saturday, at the helm of a government that has pledged to strengthen the social safety net while reversing years of economic stagnation. The inauguration of Orsi, 57, marks the return of Uruguay’s Broad Front - a center-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 Orsi recited the oath of office before Congress on Saturday 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 Orsi's presidential victory in a remarkably civilized election race between two moderates, praised as an antidote to the polarization 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 neighboring 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,” 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, 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. The friendly scene cemented Orsi as the latest in the region's swath of allied left-wing leaders - many of whom have struggled in recent years to combat rising inequality and stalling growth.

Many Uruguayans saw Orsi as the nostalgia candidate, recalling the Broad Front's 15-year rule between 2005 and 2020. During that time, the coalition presided over a historic cycle of economic growth that reduced poverty and cemented the country's pro-business reputation. But in 2020, emerging problems like creeping inequality and surging crime ushered in Lacalle Pou’s center-right government on promises of reforming the bloated state. Last year, public frustration over the persistence of those problems helped bring Lacalle Pou’s tenure to an end, as an anti-incumbent wave swept across the globe.