Specialists believe that the president-elect, who has been a deputy for eight years, is more prepared to negotiate than his predecessors.
The Chileans decided on Sunday that Gabriel Boric, 35, will be the country’s new president for the period 2022-2026. He will officially replace Sebastián Piñera on March 22.
After a polarized electoral campaign, the leftist ended up beating the ultra-conservative José Antonio Kast, by 10 points of difference (55.87%) in the highest turnout in an election since the vote was voluntary (55.6% of 15 million registered voters). ).
Boric promised to be the president of all Chileans and “take care of democracy every day.”
“The future of Chile needs us all on the side of the people and I hope we have the maturity to have their ideas (those of the other candidates) and proposals to start my government,” he said in his first speech after knowing the victory.
Among the challenges that he will have to face is that the new Constitution, whose process he supports, comes forward and seeing that it is well channeled, without going to raise things that later are not feasible or that will not be supported by public opinion. in the exit plebiscite, according to the Chilean sociologist and consultant Eugenio Tironi.
“He has posed a very important challenge in the health field, such as reducing waiting lists, because the pandemic has produced great pressure for more traditional pathologies, so to speak. (Also in) pensions and economic reactivation ”, points out Tironi.
For Eduardo Arriagada, communication expert and professor at the Catholic University of Chile, he comments that Boric will accompany much more the constituent process that would happen if Kast won.
“He knows that the plebiscite to exit the Constituent Assembly can also be a plebiscite in his first year in office, in a year that is going to be very difficult anyway,” says Arriagada, adding that he will have to work very hard on the issue of security and solving public order, which is something that has been very poorly managed in recent years.
Regarding his relationship with Congress, which will be divided almost evenly in terms of ideological tendency, the sociologist believes that the experience he has had for eight years will give Boric what he needs to negotiate. “He feels very at ease in Parliament unlike (the presidents) Piñera, (Michelle) Bachelet, (Ricardo) Lagos or (Eduardo) Frei … so he is a man who can get more agreements in the Parliament of those that are believed, despite their fragmentation ”.
While Arriagada recalls that in addition to his capacity, who will lead the relationship with Congress, generally a minister, will also be key, since he promised to pass laws with large agreements, as well as key actors around him.
For Tironi, the market, the stock market, had already internalized that Boric was winning and, therefore, there will not be so much anxiety. In addition to the fact that in the second round Boric promised to maintain the independence of the Central Bank, he made announcements of fiscal responsibility, combat inflation, and give importance to growth and employment. Gestures of democratic harmony were also seen after the results were known.
“All this is going to be very important from the point of view of the markets,” adds Tironi.
He proposes to increase taxes and create a “welfare state”
Boric seeks to end the privatization of basic services and end the markedly pro-business model that was inherited from the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) and that led Chile to be the country with the highest per capita income in South America, but the most uneven, according to the independent World Inequality Database.
The young politician is a defender of moving towards a “welfare state” that covers certain social rights, he told EFE María Cristina Escudero, political scientist at the University of Chile.
He wants a universal contribution public health system (currently only those who are not cared for in the private system contribute) and a pension model that is not managed by profit-making entities.
To finance more public services, Boric proposes to increase collection by 8% of GDP in eight years, something that “generates great mistrust in the markets” and that could scare investment, Francisco Castañeda, director of the School of Education, told the same agency. Business of the Universidad Mayor.
His plan, which many have called “bucolic”, involves improving tax progressivity, reducing some tax exemptions and increasing taxes to about 1.5% of total taxpayers, who obtain more than 4.5 million pesos per month. (about $ 5,300).
In addition to a special tax on the super-rich, creating green taxes and imposing a controversial royalty for copper extraction – Chile is the world’s leading producer.
It seeks “a regime similar to that of most OECD countries”, where the average tax collection as a percentage of GDP is 22.9%, compared to 20.7% in Chile. (I)
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