Quick Facts
Biography
Danilo Ángel Astori Saragosa (born April 23, 1940) is a Uruguayan social democratic politician who was Vice President of Uruguay from 2010 to 2015. On March 4, 2015, Astori took office as Minister of Economics and Finance, a post he previously held from 2005 to 2008. He is the main leader of the Asamblea Uruguay party, which is part of the ruling centre-left Broad Front.
In 1965 he undertook a course of Development and Planning of the UN, in Santiago de Chile. Two years later he integrated a seminar on statistical indicators of agricultural development organized by FAO and the government of the Soviet Union in Moscow.
He was a professor of the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the University of the Republic, of which he was dean in 1973.
After the military dictatorship, it resumed the position in the period 1985-1989.
Political career
He ran for vice president in the 1989 election with Líber Seregni as presidential candidate, obtaining third place with 23% of votes.
Before the 2004 elections, Astori was announced to become Finance Minister if the Broad Front won. This is said to have turned centrist voters to choose the Broad Front, and the party received 51.7% of votes.
Policies
Astori has followed a fiscal conservative policy, but allowing increases in welfare, education and health care spending. He has been a supporter of trade pacts with the United States, the European Union, the People's Republic of China and India, with the Chilean "open regionalism" as a model.
Astori resigned from his ministry on September 18, 2008. His ministerial replacement was Álvaro García.