Citizens praise the future president, who must carry out an ambitious progressive program without scaring off investors
The hope of a substantial change came to Chile last Sunday with the election of Gabriel Boric, a former student leader who at 35 has become the youngest president to reach the Casa de la Moneda, the one who has received the most votes. received in the democratic history of this Latin American country. At the same time, he will be the most left-wing ruler that the people have had since Salvador Allende’s mandate, from 1970 to 1973.
Everything seems beautiful for a large part of this country that believed and believes in Boric’s revolutionary program. A week after the remarkable triumph, Boric and Chile enjoy a ‘honeymoon’ in which the president suffers a total idealization. Everything you say sounds fantastic. He is even praised as the first president with tattoos on his arms. “Boric is a fresh and gentle breeze that has brought a huge illusion,” say some comments on social networks. All normal because until now Chile has been governed by people older than theirs, such as Michele Bachelet and Sebastián Piñera. Behind all the hope that his triumph has generated, the new president, at the same time, faces a monumental challenge such as the one represented by adjusting the expectations created during his electoral campaign to reality.
Boric promised to end the inequalities that Chile has been experiencing for many years and that, to a large extent, caused the social outbreak of October 2019, a demonstration of anger from the most needy classes, which has now ended with the election of a president young man and the drafting of a new Constitution. The new head of state captured the vote of the center-left because everything in the opposition meant voting for the extreme right led by José Antonio Kast, with a past very close to the dictator Augusto Pinochet.
THE KEYS:
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The next steps.
The leftist leader will present his Executive on January 11 but will not take office until March -
An example for the region.
Some experts believe that political change in the country will influence other neighboring states
In his program, Boric announced a change towards a welfare state that will imitate the one that is lived in many countries in Europe. The expectations created are capital letters. Among other projects, he stated that he would raise the minimum wage, at the same time that he would increase pensions, he would reduce the working day to 40 hours of weekly work, he would make a substantial change in the private health system so that there will never again be discrimination between rich and poor, and would offer free transportation to all citizens.
The main concern of several Chilean analysts focuses on how Boric will carry out this challenging citizen improvement program, how to combat that inequality without scaring off foreign investors who in Chile have had a fundamental participation in the country’s development. Defeated in the first round of the elections, Boric had to moderate some points of the economic program to achieve victory in the second round. So the candidate seemed to understand that the way to keep the promises is by offering stability and tranquility to investors and the private sector.
Chile has pinned all its hopes on Boric for a true change in which the State treats all its citizens better and equally. Nobody wants today that the enormous illusion created by the young leftist is broken soon and in a dramatic way, which can carry out a new wave of social outbreak. So that this does not occur, there are those who believe that in the absence of experience in the Administration of a State Gabriel Boric will have to appoint a very competent team that is not only made up of other leaders of the same age who have accompanied him so far to reach power, and that they are also his best friends.
Boric will take possession of the Chilean presidency on March 11, but has announced that he will make public the list of his cabinet members on January 21. Then some of the doubts that the other political parties that supported the candidacy of the elected head of state have will be revealed.
“A social government”
In this atmosphere of illusion that many Chilean citizens live, the sociologist Jaime Beltrán believes that “Boric not only represents a single generation, but also other crowds that until now have not been as important as is the case of women and young people.” «I am convinced that Boric will have in his cabinet experienced people and positive and responsible young people. It is going to maintain a social democratic government that will have respect for economic relations, stability, for institutions, through democratic means and dialogue, more in the European style. His government will have nothing to do with a Chavista-type riot or like the Nicaraguan case. The trend of this Executive will be progressive, “he assures.
The generational change that has occurred in Chile may also have an influence on other neighboring countries. Óscar González, a Colombian lawyer, university professor and master’s degree in political studies, trusts that Boric’s triumph will encourage new generations to believe more in them. “The impact of Boric’s victory is impressive and everything that it engenders has a historical force. For what reason today cannot a young Venezuelan or Colombian believe in also being a protagonist in the politics of their country? Beyond the ideological, his coming to power is going to have a great impact on other countries.
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