Why have young Chileans lost interest in a new Constitution?

Four years ago the Chilean youth They led a social outbreak that resonated throughout Latin America and led to the process to remove a symbol of the past: the Constitution of the Pinochet dictatorship. However, along the tortuous path they lost interest and prominence.

This Sunday, Chileans will vote in a plebiscite on the second proposed Constitution drafted in less than two years, which according to the latest polls could be rejected, as happened with the first project prepared by leftist movements with the support of the young president Gabriel Boric. 37 years old.

“There is wear and tear. Chile has been in elections for more than five years, one after another. So people are already tired, (…) overwhelmed by the issue. They say, what assures us that this will change?“says Fernanda Ulloa, a 24-year-old Political Science student and youth president of the Evópoli political party (center-right).

After the failure of the first project, which proposed profound transformations such as the right to abortion, a new reform process began, this time led by a council elected by popular vote and dominated by the far-right Republican Party. This second project proposes a more conservative Constitution than the current one.

“The student movements do not have the strength they had, and they are not mobilized by this plebiscite because it is between the Constitution of 80 and a Constitution more to the right than that of 80″, he explains to AFP Claudia Heisspolitical scientist of the University of Chile.

Real needs

And although the current Constitution went through several reforms that eliminated its most authoritarian norms, it still divides this country of almost 20 million inhabitants, with 70% born after the beginning of the dictatorship.

In 2019, young people protested en masse for greater access to education and health, and in favor of fair pensions, services practically privatized since the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990). The outburst ended up being a widespread outcry against inequality.

But between one constitutional discussion and another, society moved. The cost of living along with insecurity – which the right relates to migration, mostly of Venezuelans – became their biggest concerns.

“In the end the two processes ended up becoming detached from the real needs of the people, but I believe that the transformative will has not yet been extinguished.“says Catalina Lufín, 22 years old and president of the Student Federation of the University of Chile.

Abortion for revision?

Even so, one of the issues that could galvanize the interest of young people is the 2017 abortion law, which authorizes its practice on three grounds (risk to the mother’s life, non-viability of the fetus or rape) and that under the new initiative could be revised.

The Republican Party introduced a change in appearance, but it raised alarm bells among feminist movements.

Instead of the “protection of the unborn“, currently in force, the new regulations establish the same right for “who” is about to be born, which according to its promoters guarantees that life begins from conception.

“From the Republican youth we take on the challenge of being a ‘pro-life’ generation that considers, not today, but in the years that are necessary, that there be no abortion law in our country.“says the president of the youth of the Republican Party, Cristóbal García, 27 years old.

Social rights

The new proposal deepens the autonomy of teaching in schools, even giving families the option of “teaching themselves” their children and not sending them to school.

It also provides that the State, instead of allocating a general budget to schools, pays per enrolled student, also maintaining free admission in some universities for the poorest.

Without financing, the desire to “free, quality public education”, observes Lufín.

In addition, the private Pension Fund Administrators (AFP) are strengthened, created during the dictatorship and highly criticized for the allowances they provide: an average equivalent to half the minimum wage (US$ 530) for women over 60 years and for men from 65.

Natives

Although the new text recognizes indigenous peoples for the first time, it does not establish clear rules that guarantee their autonomy, as proposed by the Constitution rejected in 2022 that declared Chile as a state “plurinational”.

“The indigenous peoples had to be constitutionally recognized but they also had to be given political participation”, laments Andrés Calfuqueo, a 23-year-old Mapuche student of Political Science at the Catholic University.

Historically discriminated against, indigenous people represent 12% of the population in Chile.

If the “against” triumphs this Sunday, the Constitution of the dictatorship will continue and Chile will have returned to the starting point.