Chilean academic Noam Titelman (Jerusalem, 36 years old) was president of the Federation of Students of the Catholic University, FEUC, when Gabriel Boric led the Federation of Students of the University of Chile, FECh, in the midst of the university protests of 2011- 2012. While Boric continued his political career –he was a deputy for eight years and then President of the Republic–, Titelman dedicated himself to what he always liked, the academy: “I was always nerd heart and what I liked to do the most was read and study. Before 2011 I thought that my path was literature, but 2011 shook my head and I dedicated myself to political science, ”he says in this interview with EL PAÍS that takes place in the offices of the publisher of his first book, The new Chilean left. From the student marches to La Moneda, where he addresses above all the experience of the Broad Front, its mistakes and main challenges. He knows this political force closely because, along with Boric and others, Titelman was one of its founders.
A member of the Democratic Revolution, one of the parties of the Broad Front, master’s degree and doctorate in political science from the London School of Economics, he considers himself a secular intellectual, as Edward Said defines the thinker who is between the organic intellectual and the one who is locked up in the academy: “The secular is the one who is clearly on a political sidewalk, but can have a critical judgment about the positions of his sector,” explains Titelman, who will soon be based in Paris for his postdoc. Considered one of the sharpest feathers of the new generation of the Chilean left, his is not in the trenches. “Politicians are hopeless optimists, because they always believe they can win. I, on the other hand, have a more pessimistic tendency. I could never be political”, he assures in this conversation where he addresses the new Chilean panorama after the Constitutional Council elections two weeks ago, where the far-right Republican Party reached 35% of the votes and became the main political force .
Ask. He will also be pessimistic about the results of the May 7 elections.
Answer. Pessimism allows not to be surprised when bad things happen [Titelman se ríe]. But there were several elements to foresee what happened in those elections. The polls were not that far removed from the results. What was surprising was that the People’s Party did so badly [populista de derecha] and that the Republicans fared much better than perhaps they themselves expected. In some sense, they did too well for what they wanted to see come out of this constitutional process.
Q. What is it referring to?
R. It went so well for them that, in practice, they are going to take the lead in the process and they are going to have to take charge of the results that come out of there. And in that sense, it may be that, sooner or later, it will be their turn. the victor’s curse. Because in Chile, in the last 10 years, the vote has been marked by what anti establishment and anti-politics and, as the academic Juan Pablo Luna says, the quickest way to lose power is to win an election.
Q. What else must be taken into account to understand the irruption of the extreme right?
R. In the last decade, only 50% of the register has been participating in the elections. And in these last two elections, the one for the plebiscite in September 2022 and the one for the Constitutional Council on May 7, around five million voters joined. And we still have a lot to learn about those voters. But there is a recent study of COES which demystifies that those who did not vote were very similar to those who vote. It already seems quite clear that those who do not vote have a different distribution of preferences.
Q. And how are those new voters who have entered with the compulsory vote?
R. They have even less identification with the left-right axis and a more critical position of the abuses and of the elites. But, for example, on value issues –abortion, sexual diversity, fighting crime, immigration– it seems that they have more traditionalist and conservative positions. On the other hand, on economic issues, they seem quite similar to regular voters and, even, on some issues like education, they seem more statist. It is a quadrant of Chilean politics that today is quite deserted: they are, so to speak, on the right on value issues and on the left on economic issues.
Q. In what sense are the new voters more conservative?
R. There is something somewhat euphemistic, because they are not more conservative because they admire Edmund Burke, but because they have a specific, Christian identity. There is a survey the Bicentennial, which shows that despite the fact that confidence in the Catholic Church has fallen considerably, the vast majority of Chileans still define themselves as believers. And not only that, but 48% say that their religion is very or quite important to their identity. In other words, there is a Christian identity that until now seemed not to be relevant in the political debate, but found an outlet in the Republican Party vote.
Q. Could it have another expression, through another party?
R. You cannot necessarily have a way out only through Republicans, because, in fact, on economic issues, the new voter would not share your ideas. In the last election in Chile, a paradox arose: the Christian Democracy bet on a revival of the identity of the center, when in reality the environment was much more conducive to showing its social-Christian identity. In this sense, the Chilean Christian Democracy has an opportunity.
Q. What he says about the validity of Social Christianity demolishes the idea that Chilean society had moved strongly towards more liberal positions.
R. Society may be polarizing with a group that continues to maintain an important Christian identity, probably very different from the one we had 30 years ago, with less confidence in the institutionality of the Church, but that continues to maintain a vision of politics and the society colored by that identity. And, at the same time, another important group of Chilean society, growing, with more liberal positions and seeking more individual autonomy. Both can coexist and it is one of the difficulties that Chile faces, among many others.
Q. Is the advance of the extreme right in Chile a cultural defeat, apart from an electoral one, for the new Chilean left?
R. There is a number of the magazine jacobin – the main democratic socialist of America – who is called left in purgatory. And in the editorial of that magazine they explain why they occupy this Christian image: what has happened to the new left in recent times is that they have reached a level of strength rarely seen in history, with Bernie Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez in the United States, for example. And that this force has been anchored in a young, middle-class voter with higher education. And that conception of the new left as a network of diverse struggles – the economic, feminist, environmentalist, regionalist, indigenous – managed to convene that world in a powerful way. But the problem is that with that discourse he was moving away from the semi-rural, rural and religious white working class –in the case of the United States.
Q. And in the Chilean case?
R. In the Chilean case, it can be thought of as follows. In the first presidential round of 2021, this new left, in its pure version, obtained 25% [el porcentaje de Boric]. And it is a huge percentage for what this left had achieved but, at the same time, it was far from being a majority project. And after the constitutional plebiscite on September 4, he faces the demons of that tension: how to expand the support base without losing that original support.
Q. Has the Boric government moderated?
R. There is a lot of talk about moderation, but the first thing to moderate is the ego, and I think there has been a growing moderation of the ego. And that has made it possible to give a discussion in a different way, which means listening to the other in his best version.
Q. What has this new Chilean left done wrong to have opened the way for the Republican Party?
R. Confronting the far right means taking seriously what their voters are saying. And the left in Chile have to find a way to speak to that Christian identity voter. Chilean progressivism abandoned the popular subject of Christian identity and has to speak to that world again. In this sense, a diverse coalition has to exist a force that represents Social Christianity. How do you reflect this subject who feels proud to have religion, which is part of his identity, and who today looks at the political spectrum and sees only one force in this line, the Republican Party?
Q. Are you talking about a social majority composed of the Christian Democrats on the left?
R. Yes, and I think the New Majority [el conglomerado de partidos que respaldó el segundo Gobierno de Michelle Bachelet, entre 2014 y 2018, desde la Democracia Cristiana al Partido Comunista] it was an advance, a correct thesis: a progressive project needs to include at least a social-Christian matrix. To build majorities, an alliance should be formed from Social Christianity to the Communist Party, including everything in between.
Q. But the New Majority did not work out.
R. It did not result, mainly, due to a debate intoxicated by generational identities and a series of disputes that are exhausted. For most Chileans, the year in which each leader was born matters little.
Q. Wouldn’t it be at least disconcerting that forces like the Broad Front, so untraditional, now appeal to a Social Christian voter?
R. It is probable that the Broad Front can never appeal to that Social Christian identity as the Christian Democracy does, or as the Christian Left did historically. For this reason, if progressivism wants to be a majority project, it will need broad coalitions that include Social Christianity. On the other hand, the New Left of the Broad Front can generate a compelling narrative that recognizes the value of the community, families in all their forms, and solidarity. A story that focuses on what George Orwell called the common decency and that it is quite similar to the idea of economic progressivism with respect to tradition. Even President Boric himself, when he was a candidate, he spoke of the value he gave to the gift of faith. And it is something that many Chileans feel the same way. A story like that could be the basis for a coalition broad enough to include parties that can appeal to popular social-Christian identities with their historical heritage.
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