First modification:
This Tuesday the Government of Gabriel Boric announced that Chile will vote on the new Constitution on September 4. An announcement that came accompanied by the victory of the “no” to the new Magna Carta in a weekly poll, and on what Boric assured he will modify “whatever is necessary” so that the new Constitution goes ahead.
“Let what needs to be modified be modified”, this is how President Gabriel Boric reacted this Tuesday to the opinion polls that show an advantage in rejecting the new Magna Carta.
And it is that the new weekly survey from the pollster Cadempublished on Monday, brought bad news for the new president Gabriel Boric and for the members of the Constitutional Convention.
The rejection of the new Constitution, which all those over 18 years of age will have to vote for on September 4, stood at around 46% and exceeded the support rate for the first time, which reaches 40%.
“The opinion polls (…) are worrying and are a wake-up call for all of us who trust in this constituent process and those who believe that it is necessary,” said President Boric from Argentina, where he has traveled on his first presidential departure from the country.
For Boric, the Constitution proposal is one of his electoral promises and is crucial during his term, something that -in his own words- he conceives as “a meeting point for Chileans.”
The constitutional process in Chile
The current Constitution of Chile is the one inherited from the time of Augusto Pinochet, the dictator who ruled the country from 1973 to 1990, and many experts believe that this is the source of the profound inequality due to its strong neoliberal nature.
Along these lines, the constituent process was born after the protests -or social awakening- in Chile in 2019, triggered by the rise in the price of subway tickets; but that they dragged a great discontent by the inequality in the country.
In a historic plebiscite in October 2020, almost 80% of Chileans were in favor of changing the Constitution and in May of the following year the 155 members of the Constituent Convention, in charge of drafting the document, were elected at the polls. progressive and with a large number of independent citizens.
The body is also equal between men and women and has 17 seats reserved for indigenous peoples.
The new Constitution has a deliberate will to put an end to the legacy of the dictatorship and that is why it is so important for the current Left Executive. In fact, the date proposed for its vote is a “wink” to former socialist president Salvador Allende, who came to power on September 4, 1970 and was overthrown in Pinochet’s coup d’état in 1973 – when he was also assassinated -.
The new proposal profoundly changes the current constitutional framework and the Chilean institutions. Reason why it has generated a certain feeling of distance between those who write the Magna Carta and a sector of the population, especially those identified with the right.
Some even accuse that some of the regulations already drafted have been carried out without the support of the majority of the members of the Convention, something that the institution itself denies.
Happy Monday! Today we want to tell you that there are already 155 articles in the constitutional proposal. They are broken down into 259 regulations or subsections that were voted in plenary and on average there is… 🥁🥁 79% support of the Convention! Check the details in the table. @contexto_cl 👇 pic.twitter.com/g9XEYbhLho
— FactualContext (@FactualContext) April 4, 2022
However, President Boric has also been critical of the process and even acknowledged having spoken with people who in the 2020 plebiscite voted in favor of starting the constituent process “and who today have doubts.”
“These doubts cannot be simply ignored. The discussion is not only communicational, it cannot only be blamed on the external, there are also responsibilities of those who believe in the process. And my call is to seek the greatest transversality and breadth possible to build a Constitution that is a meeting point,” said the president.
However, despite the fact that it has lost popularity in recent months due to internal disputes and several scandals around constituents linked to the 2019 social protests, the Chilean Constitutional Convention remains one of the most highly valued bodies in the country.
The fall in popularity of Gabriel Boric
Less than a month after being sworn in, polls also show Boric’s popularity has plummeted. Currently, the level of disapproval of him has gone from 20% to 35%, in the last 15 days; while his approval was around 45% -five points less than when he was sworn in on March 11-.
And it is that, despite the great expectations with his arrival, the political and social panorama that Boric has welcomed continues to be very complex. Something for which experts believe that his assessment will fluctuate frequently, both positive and negative.
Among the challenges it faces are the conflict with the Mapuche indigenous people in the South Macrozone, the migration crisis in the north of the country, the economic recession accentuated by the pandemic or inflation.
However, the expectations that the left-wing leader will comply with reforms to the pension, tax and health systems -among others- that he promised during his campaign remain very high among the population.
With EFE and local media
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