The main parties of the Chilean traditional right announced that they will reject in the plebiscite on September 4 the new Magna Carta that a convention composed mostly of independent citizens is finishing drafting. Renovación Nacional (RN), the Independent Democratic Union (UDI) and Evópoli, which formed the coalition with which the right-wing Sebastián Piñera governed in his second term (2018-2022), defined their positions in different congresses held this Saturday, although they did not they generated surprise since for weeks it was sensed that they were going to support the “Rejection” option.
The constitutional convention, made up of 154 mostly independent and progressive citizens, is in the “harmonization” phase of the text and will deliver the final proposal in an official ceremony on July 4, which includes social rights such as public and universal health, free and quality education, better pensions, access to housing and water.
The traditional right, which barely won 37 seats, alleges that it is a “radical” and “exclusive” norm, discussed without consensus. For Francisco ChahuanRN leader, the vote against the constitutional proposal will serve to defend “freedom and the foundations of democratic institutions”. In Evópoli, meanwhile, Senator Luciano Cruz-Coke assured: “If we are going to be agents of change and provide that promised home for everyone, it has to be on a well-done basis, that respects the republican history of the country“.
If approved in the referendumwhich is mandatory for everyone over 18 years of age, the new Magna Carta would replace the current one, inherited from the Augusto Pinochet regime (1973-1990) and considered by many as the origin of the country’s great inequalities due to its neoliberal court.
Chile began the constitutional process as the political way to dismantle the wave of massive protests that began in 2019 and left thirty people dead and thousands injured. In a historic plebiscite in October 2020, almost 80 percent of Chileans were in favor of changing the text and in May of the following year the constituents were elected at the polls.