“I am going to vote but quite disappointed”, declares one of the young people who participated in the social revolt of October 2019 and that Today he feels that none of the seven candidates for this Sunday’s election picks up the demands of the street. Danilo Panes, a 26-year-old sociologist, recalls that he participated in the protests that broke out on October 18, 2019. After several days of secondary demonstrations due to the rise in the price of the subway ticket, more people joined until a powerful social unrest was generated that gave a turn to the politics of the country.
In 2011, when the social protests began with more force in Chile, Panes also participated in the massive student demonstrations that arose during the first government of the conservative Sebastián Piñera (2010-2014) in demand of a “public, free and quality” education for one of the countries where university gratuity did not exist.
Five years earlier, high school students and their “Penguin Revolution” they had given a first warning that young people were going to be the protagonists of social changes in a nation considered for years an example of economic and social stability. But now, at the gates of a presidential election, the candidates “They are unable to express an alternative to the extent of what the people demanded in October,” adds this sociologist.
It is estimated that in Chile 50 percent of the 15 million voters are undecided about whether they will go to vote. With seven candidates in dispute and proposals ranging from the extreme left to the extreme right, none manages to convince that they will be able to promote a change to achieve greater social equity, better access to health and education, pensions and gender equality .
“Young people should go to vote mainly because it has already been a long time of absence in politics regarding youth, and it is understood because as youth we are disappointed and disappointed in what the model has been up to now “, he declares Debora Pinto, a 27-year-old psychologist.
Boric, the alternative
In the midst of a boredom towards the majority of the candidates, Gabriel Boric, the 35-year-old left-wing deputy, is the one who awakens the greatest adherence among young people. Former student leader, this ‘millennial’ changed his image as a rock politician for a more serious and today he is one of the favorites to win the election.
“He is a candidate who also has new proposals that young people are interested in, such as, for example, feminism and environmental changes“, says the actress Francesca Santoro, in Plaza Italia, renamed “Plaza Dignidad” by the protesters who still gather there every Friday. “Boric has an unusual strength in the ABC1 sectors (the most affluent) and particularly the young ones,” he agrees. Mauricio Morales, political analyst at the University of Talca.
The ultraconservative Jose Antonio Kast – contrary to abortion and equal marriage – could dispute a second round with Boric, according to previous polls. The senator completes the list of candidates Yasna Provoste, of the New Social Pact heir to the Agreement of Michelle bachelet, Gabriel Sichel, the official candidate of Chile Podemos, Macro Enriquez-Ominami of the Progressive Party (PRO), Eduardo Artés (Patriotic Union, left) and the libertarian Franco Parisi (People’s Party).
The great awakening
Draft a new Constitution to replace the one inherited from the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) was one of the great demands of the 2019 demonstrations, channeled into a political agreement that called for a plebiscite to decide to change the Magna Carta.
“The mobilizations of 2019 meant the great awakening of our people,” said Rodrigo Hidalgo, a 28-year-old teacher, who along with Danilo and Débora participate in the Minga movement, a youth organization that carries out cultural activities and seeks housing solutions for people from the San Miguel neighborhood, in Santiago.
The possibility of changing the current Chilean neoliberal model through a new Constitution prompted young people to vote en masse in the plebiscite that took place on October 25, 2020, when the option “I approve” the change was imposed with 79 percent. hundred. Seven months later, on May 15, the 155 members of the the Constitutional Convention that on July 4 began to draft the new Charter.
“But voting for president or parliamentarians is less sexy for young people. We have an ellipsis, because we do not know if those young people who came to vote for the first time (for the plebiscite), who are 1.2 million, are going to vote again” next Sunday, he pointed Axel Callis, analyst and site manager TuInfluyes.com.
For his part Rodrigo Hidalgo, a 28-year-old history professor, opined: “if the proposals do not aim to generate a change and a transformation in the economic and political system, they will also not summon” many young people, he says.
*AFP
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