After the triumph of Rejection in the constitutional plebiscite on September 4, Gabriel Boric made the first cabinet change. The parties of the former Concertación—the coalition that governed Chile after the dictatorship—were the main beneficiaries, and their influence grew in the Executive, which gave a clear signal of a return to the center.
Boric appointed Carolina Tohá, a member of the Party for Democracy (PPD) and Ana Lya Uriarte of the Socialist Party (SP), to the Ministry of the Interior and the General Secretariat of the Presidency (Segpres), respectively.
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Both portfolios play a fundamental role in the scaffolding of the Executive as they are part of the Political Committee of the Government, a coordinating body that meets every Monday at the Palacio de La Moneda. Similarly, Segpres is the link with other state powers, mainly with the legislature.
With the arrival of the ministers in government, the Executive sent a clear signal of its shift towards the center, as both the PPD and the SP were part of the former Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia, the center-left coalition that governed Chile. . between 1990 and 2010. During those years the economic model inherited from the civil-military dictatorship (1973-1990) deepened.
“It is not something so surprising, if we stick to the legislative results of this year, when Gonzalo Winter [government deputy] called for closer positions with the center to have greater room for maneuver,” political analyst and sociologist from the University of Chile, Camilo Godoy, told Sputnik.
“This is understandable, but you also have to have a strategy to not leave aside all the people who initially supported the government’s program,” he added.
Both SP and PPD are part of Democratic Socialism, which competed for the 2021 presidential elections in a different political bloc and with a more moderate program than that of Apruebo Dignidad, a coalition made up of the Broad Front, the Communist and Social Party . The Green Regionalist Federation, which took Borič as a candidate.
LACK OF REPORT FROM THE EXECUTIVE
Boric arrived at La Moneda with a strong critique of the “age 30” and post-dictatorship governments. Apruebo Dignidad refused to form a list with the PPD to appear in a single block in the parliamentary and presidential elections of 2021. For this reason, the incorporation of these parties in the Executive has raised a number of criticisms.
Some government policies show their shift towards the center, even moving away from electoral promises. For example, it did not appeal to cancel the lithium tender made by former president Sebastián Piñera (2010-2014 and 2018-2022) a few days before the end of his term.
It was the Court of Appeal of Copiapó, in the Atacama region, 834 kilometers from Santiago, that suspended the tendering process launched by the Piñera government. The appeal, filed by the governor of the region, Miguel Vargas, argued that the tender violates several articles of the Constitution and that the deposit is in an area of tourist interest, in the Maricunga salt pan, under the Ojos del Salado volcano.
Throughout the campaign, he appeared for Chile’s withdrawal from the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP-11), when it was finally approved by the Senate on October 11, and the amnesty project for prisoners of the social explosion. of 2019, another of his campaign promises, sleeps in Congress without approval as Boric criticizes Nicaragua’s political prisoners.
“It’s as if, in the absence of a script, someone said, ‘I’d better keep doing what’s already been done.’ This, of course, affects the original objective. “The lack of a story makes you a prisoner of evaluating polls and responding to situations,” said Godoy.
“The ambivalence of these coalitions is a component that, on the other hand, can help preserve them in power, as former president Michelle Bachelet has done many times. [2006-2010 and 2014-2018]relying on her charisma or offering policies while maintaining important aspects of the neoliberal model,” he added.
WHAT DOES THE GOVERNMENT GAIN WITH THE ENTRY OF SP AND PDP INTO THE POLITICAL COMMISSION?
For the political scientist Patricio Urriola, from the Alberto Hurtado University, the incorporation of the SP and the PPD or “any other type of party in the government coalition generates a strengthening of the programmatic setting”.
Urriola explained that without the SP and PPD, the government was a minority coalition in the parliamentary mandate. Therefore, it would be very difficult for him to approve or coordinate legislative work on the basis of the program.
“With the incorporation of PPD and SP in the Political Commission, there is more room for maneuver. SP and PPD are relevant because they are even more aware of the time and legislative agreements between the two chambers”, Urriola added.
The political scientist emphasized that the incorporation of the parties of the former Concertación will serve the government, since before the plebiscite the Executive had expressed full support for the draft of the new Constitution, where one of the articles proposed the elimination of the Senate.
“After the triumph of the rejection and this new context, it is evident that the Government must seek allies to have a much wider room for maneuver, to be able to implement its government program and align it, on it all, with the consensus that exists in the Senate”, concluded Urriola.
With information from Sputnik (Alexis Polo González)
