Gave logic in the choice of constituents in Chile – 05/10/2023 – Maria Hermínia Tavares

Last Sunday (7), Chileans voted for the extreme right in the dispute for the 51 seats in the Constituent Council, which will be responsible for drafting the country’s new Charter. José Antonio Kast’s Republicans were awarded about 36% of the vote; In addition to those received by the coalition of the traditional right, Chile Seguro, the opponents of the leftist government of Gabriel Boric will enjoy undisputed hegemony in deciding what the basic law of the Andean nation will be like.

The election result is the culmination of a process that began with the 2019 popular uprising, which nationals call “el estallido” (the bang), paving the way for the renewed left’s victory against traditional center-left political forces. and right —both in the 2021 presidential election and in the dispute for representation in the Constituent Assembly the following year.

The victors came from a coalition of various leftist groups that shared commitments to environmentalism, gender equality and the recognition of the rights of indigenous peoples. Consistently, his draft Constitution supported extensive social franchises, diverse participation mechanisms, and legal abortion—in addition to converting Chile into a plurinational state.

It failed to match the people.

Submitted to a plebiscite, the proposal was rejected by 60% of voters. The alternative was to go back to the starting point, delegating to the Constituent Council the drafting of a new Charter —to be also submitted to the voters’ scrutiny.

Seen up close, the political crisis is typically Chilean. But it shares similar traits with many others that are repeated in the neighborhood.

As in Chile, left-wing parties and coalitions have come to power thanks to their capacity to gather votes beyond their faithful bases, better gauged by the results in the first round —they were, for example, 25.8% for Gabriel Boric and 18.9 % for the Peruvian Pedro Castillo, in 2021, and 40.3% for the Colombian Gustavo Petro, in 2022.

Thus, the margins for the implementation of pure and hard left policies are narrow. Attempts to take them forward, against the grain of reality, feed the most radical right-wing wings, contemplating them with growing protagonism in many countries, making it easier for them to throw fuel on the fire of political polarization. The result is a growing tension in the democratic game.

The initiative to pacify feelings will not come from the ultra-right. This can only come from the fronds on the left that are aware of their effective size; therefore, open to dialogue with those who think differently.

PRESENT LINK: Did you like this text? Subscriber can release five free hits of any link per day. Just click the blue F below.