Chile punishes politicians and trusts independent candidates to lead the process of change

The social outbreak that has been shaking Chile since October 2019 finally has a political translation: the traditional parties no longer respond to the demands of the citizens, who chose to punish them and reward independent candidates to constitute the assembly that must draft the new Constitution of the country.

“Citizens have sent us a strong and clear message: we are not properly in tune with the demands and desires of the citizenry.. And we are being challenged by new ideas and new leadership. We must listen with humility and attention to the new message from the people”, summed up the president, Sebastián Piñera, in a message to the entire country at the edge of eleven at night and accompanied by all his ministers in the inner courtyard of the Palacio de the coin.

Chile Vamos, the center-right coalition that currently governs, obtained with more than 70 percent of the votes counted, only 38 of the 155 seats in the assembly, which will have between nine months and a year to shape the Constitution that will replace the sanctioned in 1980 during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. The center-left that gathered for decades in the so-called “Concertación” fared even worse, only adding 25 seats, two fewer than the left centered around the Communist Party. The 83 independent candidate groups won 48 seats. There are 17 seats reserved for native peoples.

The constituent elections were held simultaneously with the voting of regional governors, who until now were directly appointed by the president, mayors and councilors. Evelyn Matthei, who is a member of the center-right coalition Chile Vamos, was re-elected as mayor of Providencia, a district of Santiago, but was very harsh in her analysis: “It is striking how badly we traditional politicians have had. Here there have been abuses, scandals, exploitation, this is so. Many times nothing happens at the judicial level, but the public notices it and punishes it.”

“The traditional political class suffers the worst political defeat in its history,” synthesized the site elmostrador.cl, an analysis with which he agreed in dialogue with EL MUNDO Gonzalo Müller, professor at the Faculty of Government of the Universidad del Desarrollo: “This is a total reconfiguration of the Chilean political scene, a very strong vote of punishment for the parties. The abstention has been very strong, that speaks of a middle class that is demobilizing and punishing, that stops voting for the center-right parties as it traditionally did.”

Karina Oliva, an independent candidate who will fight in the second round to govern the metropolitan region of Santiago, the richest and most powerful in the country, was forceful: “People said enough of the same as always. The people won and the women won.. This is another political cycle, the transition is over. It's 30 years of ruling for the rich.”

“This is a free Chile, a just Chile, a feminist Chile. Today we bury the Constitution of 1980,” Gabriel Boric, presidential candidate of the left, celebrated euphorically. Shortly after, President Piñera, in the political antipodes of Boric, highlighted that the country had just experienced a historic day: “For the first time we elected a joint constitutional convention with the presence of the original peoples.”

Former President Ricardo Lagos, a Social Democrat, called for the constituent assembly not to be “the mother of all battles, but the mother of all agreements,” but the atomization of the Chilean political landscape raises doubts about whether this could be the case.. In addition to the second rounds next month, in the regions and municipalities that require it, the country is launching a presidential election in November with a possible second round weeks later.. In this context, the effervescence and social discontent in the midst of the pandemic, despite the great vaccination campaign in the country, contribute to making 2021 a year of great uncertainty in the most open economy in Latin America.

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