The Chilean extreme right, in favor of the current Constitution inherited from the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship, won on Sunday the majority of the seats in the council created precisely to modify the Magna Carta. It was the citizens who made up the drafting team of the new main law of the country, demanded for more than three years. However, the Republican Party – which does not want to change the existing rules – won a landslide victory, even against the traditional right. The formation achieved twenty-two of the fifty positions at stake, leaving the official coalition (Unidad para Chile) in second place.
The president of the opposition, José Antonio Kast, affirmed this Monday, after knowing the results, that “we can breathe a little easier and say responsibly and with hope that it is the first day of a better future for our country.” The Republicans have become the party with the most votes at the national level in a consultation since the return to democracy, with 36% of the votes.
The extreme right, which is a staunch defender of the neoliberal model approved in 1980 under the military regime, now has enough power to veto any proposal for change. Last year a constitutional process led by the left had already been advanced, but it was rejected in a referendum in September.
After the defeat, the president, Gabriel Boric, invited the Republican Party not to make the same mistake as the coalition with the previous project. “The last proposal failed, among other things, because we did not know how to listen to each other among those who thought differently,” he declared.
protests
In addition, Boric insisted that he once again “have an opportunity to build with dialogue and find what best represents everyone’s desires.” The current State document has undergone 62 modifications until April 2022. But the people accused that the change process was very rigid, since it required a majority of two-thirds or three-fifths of the current deputies and senators, for which they decided form a commission.
Already in 2019, Santiago de Chile hosted massive demonstrations calling for a new Magna Carta. The violence then left 33 dead and thousands injured. The protests ended with a plebiscite in 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, in which the drafting of a text that included the fundamental laws was approved.
#Chile #leaves #constitutional #reform #hands #ultraright