The power struggle did not end with the presidential elections, the outcome of the new Constitution is missing, but there is no doubt that Gabriel Boric will show empathy.
By Gabriel Gaspar / Latin America21
The electoral curtain fell in Chile. Less than two hours after the polls closed, Gabriel Boric emerged as the clear winner. The second round was attended by more than 8.2 million citizens out of about 15 million eligible voters. It is the election with the highest participation since the vote is voluntary, of which more than 55% voted for the leftist candidate who ended up taking ten points of difference from the rightist José Antonio Kast.
Is the cycle opened by the social outbreak of October 2019 closing? Did the Chileans manage to channel their demands through the institutional channel? What political scenario will the new president face? How will its coexistence with the Constituent Convention? Is the Chilean political map being rebuilt? Where does Boric come from?
Beyond the results, the elections open several unknowns. One of them is to explain how the right subordinated itself to such an extreme option. Kast’s candidacy emerged mocking the “right wing light“, As he called the parties of the traditional right, and described Piñera’s administration as cowardly for” kneeling before the left. ” He initially proposed that Chile leave the UN, and misogyny and homophobia were part of his narrative. And although in the second round he moderated his speech, his profile resembles the harshest Pinochetism of which he was a supporter.
If the traditional right – what to say about the more liberal – was absorbed by the extreme right, the old Concertación also lost prominence. It applies especially to the Socialist party and the Christian democracy.
In sum, the two great coalitions that led the post-Pinochet transition have lost their prominence. New actors have emerged: the Broad Front on the left and the Republican party on the right. Two years after the social outbreak, the country’s political representation has been reconfigured and a generational change is also taking place.
The country that the new government will assume
The new government that will take office in March will face an economy hit by the pandemic with an incipient and tenacious inflation of around 7% that does not stand out compared to other countries in the region, but that worries Chileans who have not suffered from it for decades .
In addition, during the pandemic they have resorted to the delivery of bonds and subsidies to the population, necessary but impossible to sustain over time, while the public debt has risen considerably.
But not everything is economics and politics. Persistent migration, mostly from the region itself, already represents about 8% of the population and is one of the issues of greatest concern. And on the other hand, the crisis that is being experienced in Araucanía and where the Piñera government failed in all the lines is another of the burning issues for the future government. Meanwhile, the successful vaccination process that stopped the pandemic gives the new government some breathing space.
Meanwhile, the constituent process continues in its wake. The Convention will conclude its work in July 2022 and then a plebiscite will be held to ratify the final text. In practice it is about the elaboration of a new social pact.
In this framework, the majority of the conventional ones are located on the left, although they are fragmented into various banks and on the other hand there is an important representation of the native peoples who represent 17 out of 155.
No one doubts that the new text will seek to consecrate social rights that are currently very diluted, as many also hope that the recognition of the native peoples will facilitate a new treatment, especially in Araucanía. Another thing will be the form of state that is proposed (presidentialism or parliamentarism).
Now a complex transition stage will begin, marked by the probable evaporation of the Piñera administration. His traditional supporters have abandoned him and his opponents are the vast majority. The president-elect will make himself felt from now on and from the installation of the new government (11/3) and until the plebiscite (likely in September) another stage will open that will coincide with the final phase of the constituent process.
Therefore, the struggle for power does not end with the presidential election since the outcome of the constitutional process is missing. But there is no doubt that the Boric government will have adequate empathy with the work of the Convention.
Around eight o’clock on Sunday night, when Kast acknowledged his defeat by calling Boric to congratulate him and Piñera did the corresponding thing in a video call broadcast on all channels, in the streets of Chile thousands of supporters of Gabriel Boric – predominantly young – met threw into the streets.
The new president comes from the student mobilizations and belongs to a generation of the left post Cold War, free of traumas and without liturgies. A left connected with the survival of the planet, gender equality and the overcoming of social inequalities and that represents an important step in the construction of the new institutionality that channels the social protest that erupted in October 2019. (THE)
Gabriel Gaspar is a political scientist and former professor at the Institute of International Studies of the University of Chile, at the Andrés Bello Diplomatic Academy and at the UAM and UNAM (Mexico). Former undersecretary of war in the Chilean Ministry of Defense and former ambassador. www.latinoamerica21.com, a plural medium committed to the dissemination of critical opinion and truthful information about Latin America.
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
