Venezuela or social democratic Europe, which will be Boric’s left in Chile?

The triumph of Gabriel Boric in the presidential elections in Chile raises the question of which left does he represent. Branded as “communist” by his critics, and allied with them, he nonetheless points to social democratic Europe as an inspiration for the “welfare state” he promotes.

In a country with strong social inequalities, where 1% of the population owns 25% of the wealth, according to ECLAC, Boric defeated right-wing José Antonio Kast by a wide margin with the promise of expanding rights in health, pensions and education , currently not guaranteed by the neoliberal system that is maintained as a legacy of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).

The electoral campaign left the idea in a large part of the population that the triumph of the 35-year-old leftist of the Approve Dignity coalition – made up of his party, the Broad Front, and the Communist Party – threatens growth and economic stability. achieved in the last three decades.

“More than a left-wing project in Latin America like that of Rafael Correa (in Ecuador), Hugo Chávez (in Venezuela) or Evo Morales (in Bolivia), what Gabriel Boric really embodies and the Broad Front is more related to social democracy However, Rodrigo Espinoza, professor of Political Science at the Diego Portales University, said.

“Chilezuela”

In the highly polarized electoral campaign, Kast assured that Boric’s project would lead Chile down the path of the failed Venezuela of Nicolás Maduro, of Castro’s Cuba or the destroyed democracy of Nicaragua with Daniel Ortega.

“The left only promotes poverty, that poverty that has dragged Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba, where people flee from there because that drug dictatorship only brings poverty and misery,” Kast accused at the end of the campaign.

A speech that in Chile was coined with the term “Chilezuela” by the followers of the right-wing. “It is typical of the terror campaigns carried out mainly by the extreme right,” added the academic.

Boric himself has clearly indicated that neither Cuba nor Nicaragua are his models. In July, he assured that his solidarity was with the “Cuban people who are demonstrating,” not with the communist dictatorship.

And in November, after Ortega’s fourth consecutive victory, he assured on Twitter that his government will not support any kind of “dictatorships and autocracies, whoever bothers”. “Nicaragua needs democracy, not fraudulent elections or persecution of opponents,” he said.

However, the insistence of his detractors that he is a “communist” has penetrated some Chileans, although the communists have been allies in other governing coalitions in the past, including that of Michelle Bachelet (2014-2018).

María Luisa Galleguillos, a 53-year-old teacher, believes that if it had not been for Pinochet, Chile “would have been Venezuela today.”

The experts consulted disagree. “The image of Venezuela is very precarious and with little imagination for what Chile is”, affirmed the academic of Political Sciences of the University of Chile, María Cristina Escudero.

Boric is not a communist. His political group is moving to understand that fiscal responsibility is important and that reforms to close social gaps must be gradual, long-term, and with fiscal stability, “said Francisco Castañeda, director of the School of Business of the Greater University.

In his first speech as president-elect before tens of thousands of people, Boric promised to expand social rights “with fiscal responsibility” and “taking care of our macroeconomy.”

For Castañeda, “the main risk comes from the fact that he could give in to many pressure groups and that his policies in that case become populist.”

Uruguay or European Social Democracy

With the idea that the State needs to be strengthened in order to expand social policies, Boric promises a substantial improvement in basic social rights, which it will finance with a tax reform that will increase tax collection by 5%.

It also hopes to rely on the new Constitution that is being drawn up and that will replace the current one, inherited from the dictatorship, after a mandatory vote in a plebiscite.

According to Escudero, the Boric government is more related to the social democracies of Europe or even, to give an example in Latin America, closer to the Uruguayan model.

“(Uruguay) is a small, stable country that has a moderate development model in which there is a strong state with a strong middle class and greater social equity,” he said.

After the historical rise of the Chilean peso and the collapse of the Santiago Stock Exchange by more than 6% on Monday, Boric said that he will define his cabinet as soon as possible to “grant certainty” to the markets, concerned about the course that the deputy will follow and Former student leader who will become the youngest president in Chilean history when he takes office on March 11.