The left-wing president Gabriel Boric has said, after the victory of the option against of the proposed Constitution of Chile, that during his mandate “the constitutional process is closed. The emergencies are different.” The president spoke from La Moneda shortly after 9:00 p.m. when the results were already consolidated: 55% of Chileans rejected the text and 44% approved it. The one that was voted on was a project that had only counted on the votes of the right, unlike the first process, which was held in a plebiscite in 2022 and supported by the left, so in neither of them did it reach a political consensus.
“It is time to recognize the result achieved by those who raised the option againstbut without forgetting that an important part of those who attended the polls voted for the option in favor. We cannot repeat the same mistake of the previous plebiscites. We all make the country and those who triumph in an election cannot do without or ignore those who are circumstantially defeated. Our country will continue with the current Constitution because after two plebiscite constitutional proposals, neither managed to represent and unite Chile in its beautiful diversity. The country became polarized, divided, and regardless of this overwhelming result, the constitutional process failed to channel the hopes of having a new Constitution written for everyone,” Boric said.
And he added: “Politics has remained indebted to the people of Chile. And that debt is paid by achieving the solutions that Chileans need and demand that we achieve. It is clear, I have no doubt, that what citizens demand today is a greater capacity for dialogue, for consensus, but above all for action, for the resolution to abandon the trenches and the imposition of partial visions in order to be able to concentrate on the problems. most pressing problems that Chileans experience in their daily lives and continue to cause legitimate discomfort that is present and that we cannot ignore.”
I invite you to build together a new era for Chile: growth for all, social justice and citizen security. The country needs everyone. pic.twitter.com/FnmqWHz3nq
— Gabriel Boric Font (@GabrielBoric) December 18, 2023
Boric said that the constitutional process, which “was intended to bring hope,” has finally “generated frustration and even boredom in a relevant part of the citizenry and we cannot ignore that.” And just as the official political forces have done after knowing the result of the referendum, he has announced a new attempt, together with his Cabinet, to re-promote the pension reform and the fiscal pact, where there has been no progress in Congress. In addition to “redoubling efforts in security management,” in the midst of a crisis in Chile due to the emergence of more violent crime.
“The result of this plebiscite, more than a celebration, is a strong wake-up call,” he said. And he added: “Neither celebration nor arrogance. Ball on the floor, humility and work. A lot of work. I invite you to build together, all of us, a new stage for Chile,” said Boric.
A respite without celebration
With the victory of against, The Boric Government has had its first good electoral news after the presidential election in 2022, but it has not been a triumph, just a respite. He only avoided a third defeat, to the two he already had. The first was when 62% rejected the leftist convention's proposal for a Constitution, for which the Administration took a gamble. The second was in May, when Chileans voted for the integration of the Constitutional Council in the new attempt to draft a Magna Carta. This time the opposition swept the election and took control of the writing of the text, so the ruling party was reduced to 17 seats versus 22 for the Republican Party, on the extreme right, and 11 for Chile Vamos, the right-wing conglomerate. traditional.
Unlike 2022, this time the Boric Government chose not to get involved, but it was an open secret that it was about to reject the proposal. The left were left without a project. And supporting, as they did, the current Constitution, was supporting the same Magna Carta that they have tried to change for years. Although the text has 70 reforms in democracy and since 2005 has been signed by former socialist president Ricardo Lagos (2000-2006), they blamed it for being born (in 1980) in the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990). Now, however, they have voted to keep it.
A phrase that reflects the moment of the Chilean left was pronounced this Sunday by former socialist president Michelle Bachelet (2006-2010, 2014-2018), when she went to vote against: “I prefer something bad than something terrible.”
But in this plebiscite not only the ruling party was in favor against, but also moderate center-left groups that are not part of the Government, in an attitude of sort of punishment to the conservative right of the Republican Party, led by José Antonio Kast, the most influential group in the writing of the text. Even rejecting the proposal there were also ultra forces beyond the Republicans themselves.
Therefore, the triumph of the rejection cannot be attributed to the Government, especially if the dilemma was between keeping the current Constitution and the proposal that was put to a plebiscite. Basically, it was lose or lose.
It comes back once again: Chile did not go right when it elected Piñera nor did it go left when it chose Boric.
Neither did it go right after the 2022 plebiscite nor did it go left today in the 2023 plebiscite.
Chile is a much more pragmatic than ideologized country.— Cristián Valdivieso (@CristianValdivi) December 17, 2023
Thus, despite the fact that it won the rejection, a result projected by the polls when the text had not even been finished, the problem of the left-wing Administration was no longer having a new Constitution. It is something that several analysts have reiterated. One of them is Carlos Peña, rector of the Diego Portales University and one of the most influential voices on the Chilean public scene, who told EL PAÍS that, regardless of the result of the referendum this Sunday the 17th, “Gabriel's political project Boric has already failed.” And this, he added, “has been the product of a poor diagnosis, which was not able to understand the modernization of Chile and, on the other hand, saw in it a kind of scam carried out by the elites, and is the result of an undeniable incompetence of the younger paintings. Gabriel Boric's transformative purpose was completely frustrated and this was not due to the constitutional issue. What remains of the Government will be a Government of administration and the president should put emphasis on the cultural dimension of the transformations in Chile, where he is, yes, a good interpreter.
After 8 p.m., when 75% of the tables were already counted, the ten political forces of the ruling party gave a joint statement that was read by the president of the Socialist Party, Paulina Vodanovic. It was in a tone in which no one celebrated, despite the fact that they gave slight smiles as a respite. Trying to leave the constitutional issue behind, they pointed out that after the result a new political cycle opens with political, social and economic challenges.
“The triumph of against becomes a breath of fresh air for a political time that has been marked by discord and polarization. We have understood this signal,” said Vodanovic.
At the table were not only the ruling parties, but also the Christian Democrats, a moderate center-left party that is not part of the Government. But he supported the option against and Mayor Carolina Leitao was one of the spokespersons for the command that rejected the constitutional proposal.
The biggest historical failure is the left's diagnosis that the social problems in Chile were due to the 1980 letter. They went with everything to vote for it. Therefore, the constitutional issue “is over” not only because there is no floor for another process, but because the…
— Máximo Pavez 🇨🇱 (@MaximoPavezC) December 18, 2023
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