Today marks one year since Gabriel Boric, left-wing candidate of the Appruebo Dignidad party, assumed the presidency of Chile after defeating the representative of the Republican Party at the polls José Antonio KastJosé Antonio Kast, with 55% of the preferences of the 8 million Chileans who voted.
365 days have passed since then, and they have not been easy for the government headed by the former leader of the Penguin student movement. A few days after taking office, the youngest president in the country’s history (36 years old) had to face acid criticism when his Interior Minister, and one of the most important faces of his political campaign, Izkia Siches , were received with shots in the air when entering the Mapuche conflict zone to meet with the family of a young community member murdered in 2018 by the police forces. According to experts, it was the first warning sign of the government’s inexperience and one of the reasons why Siches was replaced shortly thereafter, thus opening a string of changes in Boric’s cabinet in the months that followed.
In an attempt to recover the initiative, the Chilean president announced on Friday afternoon the dismissal of five of his ministers, including the former foreign minister, Antonia Urrejola, who was replaced by the former undersecretary for International Relations and former ambassador to Belgium, Alberto van Klaveren. They also left the Cabinet: Juan Carlos García in Public Works, being replaced by Jessica López; Julieta Brodsky in Cultures, replaced by Jaime de Aguirre; Alexandra Benado in Sports, replaced by Jaime Pizarro; and Silvia Díaz in Sciences, relieved by Aisen Etcheverry. Yesterday, the new Government held its first Council of Ministers in La Moneda and posed for the official photo.
For the lawyer, Senator and president of the Finance Commission, Ricardo Lagos Weber, representative of the Party for Democracy (PPD) “It has been a year of successes, unforced errors and much learning, particularly for the members of the Broad Front, who had never had the experience of governing and today must manage the country” .
Another setback that undoubtedly marked this year in government was his support for approving the proposal for a new Great Charter presented by the 155 Constituents, since they were widely criticized by the Opposition who asked them “dedicate oneself to govern», having to moderate the speech and step aside. The final blow came on the night of September 4, 2022, when 62% of the citizenry decided to say “No” to the proposal, which was considered a great defeat for the Boric administration.
For Lagos Weber a major mistake. The reason? explicitly opt for “I approve” and “that at the same time has postponed an important part of his program in order to expect a categorical victory in that plebiscite that would give him greater political strength to carry out his program. The defeat forced a significant adjustment of his cabinet and a change in the pace and direction of the reforms ».
He is also a senator Sebastian Keitel from the Evolución Política party (Evópoli) is emphatic when he describes Boric’s first year as bad, “full of unforced errors, somersaults and electoral defeats as happened with the exit plebiscite. The most serious thing is that, in this period, social emergencies continue to be postponed and priorities such as strengthening security and the high cost of living, have not been addressed with the force and urgency that is required.
In the same line of setbacks, one that cost the president dearly was the pardon of thirteen prisoners convicted of violent crimes during the so-called “social outbreak” of 2019. The process was branded as not long-winded and controversial, which led to the departure of his then Minister of Justice, Marcela Ríos, and his Chief of Staff, Matías Meza-Lopehandia, one of his trusted men until then. “The President’s decision to pardon the so-called prisoners of the revolt is a sign of incoherence regarding the discourse on combating crime,” comments the Senator Lagos Weber.
And if we talk about blows in these months, the last one was received a few hours ago when the Chamber of Deputies rejected Boric’s Tax Reform, which was intended to collect 3.6% of GDP to finance part of its government program. With this, one of the great focuses of work of the last year collapsed, returning to zero, since it will not be able to enter the debate again for another year.
But if we see the glass half full, we could say that, despite the fact that his management was declining, according to Criteria, a National Public Opinion survey released in the first days of March, both the President and the government raised their approval. Boric reaches 39% (+6 points) of the preferences, and a disapproval of 50% (-5 points). Some of the reasons for this popular rise were the extension of the State of Exception and the deployment of the military in the southern macro zone of the country, where the Mapuche conflict continues to be a stumbling block for the governments of the day.
In addition, the good management of the mega forest fires in the south-central zone of the country during January and February, whose support also came from Spain with experts in the fight against fires, drone teams and satellites, gave these twelve months of erratic political movements.
«I think that the main successes have come hand in hand with the recognition of their mistakes in the past, for example, when they voted against the State of Exception and now they strongly defend it, the same with the law on wood theft, which now they celebrate themselves. In this sense, I consider that the mistakes have been precisely to persist in those policies and discourses that do not serve to solve the problems of citizenship (…) Chile demands more action from us and less poetry, “acknowledges the Senator Keitel.
Although the first year seems more like a “trial and error” test, the next three should set a more accurate path in terms of the country project that he promised during his campaign. At least that is what is expected of him.