2023-05-09 00:04:52
The victory of the Republican Party –PR– with 35.42 percent (3,451,066 votes) in the elections for constituent councilors in Chile, has turned this extreme right group into the first political force in the country with 23 councilors out of 50.
Thus, the PR will be the majority in the Constitutional Council with veto power and a paradoxical situation: it will have to draft a Magna Carta in a constituent process promoted by the left, which they always opposed.
The ruling party —grouped in the “Unity for Chile” coalition including the Broad Front, the Communist Party and the Socialist Party— was the second majority with 28.57 percent (2,782,956 votes), obtaining 17 representatives.
What unbalances the balance against the government of Gabriel Boric is that the traditional right (UDI, RN, Evópoli) must also be considered, which under the name of “Chile Seguro” obtained 21.07% (2,053.65 votes). and 11 representatives, which would end up tipping the pendulum towards the conservative world. The sum of the null and blank votes is close to 20 percent.
This constituent council —to which is added a member of indigenous peoples who obtained the necessary votes— will be responsible for drafting a constitution together with a group of 24 experts already appointed from the political parties, who are already working on a draft that seeks to stray as far as possible from that delivered by the extinct Constituent Convention that met during 2021.
The previous proposal was rejected by 61.89 percent of the population, despite its progressive nature focused on the environment, plurinationality and feminism, in addition to proposing the end of the Senate and important changes in the economic, educational model and health. The right took this as a triumph, delaying the process for months, despite the fact that the main argument to mobilize the public was to write a “better” constitution that would “unite” Chileans.
The ruling party calls for unity
This Monday, President Gabriel Boric recognized the triumph of Republicans –which in Chile the media call a dry “right” party– acknowledging the dismal results of the constituent convention. “The previous process, and we must say it, failed because we did not know how to listen to each other among those who thought differently (…) I invite the Republican Party, which has obtained the first unquestionable majority in this election, not to make the same mistake that we did at the time.”
This morning, on the eve of a meeting of the ruling party to analyze and make decisions towards the future, various political actors expressed in the media the need to become more unified. In recent months, the parties of the former concertation that governed the country since 1990 –PPD and the Socialist Party– have added ministers and undersecretaries to a government whose core was the “I Approve Dignity” coalition (Broad Front and Communist Party).
“The Broad Front is still alive even though the rise of the extreme right is bad for Chile,” said Juan Ignacio Latorre, president of Revolución Democrática. “The time has come to overcome the two souls of the government. One coalition. Small parties should merge into larger parties. The next election must be faced with the unity of all the forces of change”, said the deputy Daniel Manouchehri. “The popular and transforming forces must regroup,” said Camilo Escalona, general secretary of the Socialist Party.
Kast open to the traditional right
The figure of the day was undoubtedly the leader of the Republicans, José Antonio Kast, who disputed the presidency with the current president of Chile –Gabriel Boric– in the second round in 2021, obtaining 44.13 percent, compared to Boric’s 55.87 percent. Kast declared himself an admirer of Pinochet several times —responsible for the 1980 Constitution that is still in force and his government program speaks of returning to traditional values against feminism, diversity, abortion and migration.
Kast’s good moment coincides with the results of the Cadem survey that shows him leading the presidential preference with 20 percent, followed by another historic right-wing figure, Providence Mayor Evelyn Matthei (13 percent).
Astute, Kast already expressed this Monday his approach to the more traditional right —which the Chilean media tends to call the center-right— in this constituent process: “The talks will always be open (…) There was perhaps one more moment of tension not sought by us, because we have always maintained a single line, therefore, we have never refused to talk, dialogue, but always keeping our ideas very clear”.
The main division of the conservative forces has to do with the fact that the traditional right of “Chile Seguro” ended up agreeing to actively participate in the constituent process, while the Republicans were not interested in doing so, which puts them in an unusual situation as they are forced to lead it.
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