Chile started writing a proposal for a new constitution this Monday, setting up a commission of 24 experts, 12 men and 12 women, elected by Congress. The South American country is trying to replace its current Magna Carta for the second time in less than four years after 62% of citizens rejected the previous proposal in September 2022. The group, made up mostly of lawyers, is led by a woman, as progressivism demanded: lawyer Verónica Undurraga of the centre-left Democracy Party (PPD). The right, meanwhile, retains the vice-presidency in the hands of constitutionalist Sebastián Soto, who is close to former President Sebastián Piñera and represents Evópoli, an opposition formation.
The Commission of Experts took office this morning in a sober ceremony in the Senate in Santiago de Chile. He has three months to prepare a text to serve as the basis for the work of the Constitutional Council, a joint body of 50 councilors elected by citizens on May 7. This phase begins with a challenge: the disinterest and distrust of Chileans towards the current constitutional process, as reflected in various polls. According to the Pulso Ciudadano poll, while 50.9% of the population agrees with a constitutional amendment, 57.1% have little or no confidence in the new process.
The humility and moderation of the Commission’s inauguration ceremony, to which no authorities were invited, was reflected in the discreet arrival of the advisers at the Parliament building, right through to the words of various members. Two concepts were repeated: sobriety and respect. Although not compulsory, the group sang the national anthem as soon as the ceremony began where it officially took office. It was the right that asked for it last week and there was consensus to make the gesture. This is how you differentiate yourself. pi It was a nod to national traditions and history, which the previous convention ignored, and which in part led to Chileans overwhelmingly rejecting their proposal in the September referendum.
Before the ceremony, the expert group met with the Presidents of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, Álvaro Elizalde and Vlado Mirosevic, respectively, both from the ruling party. The 24 commissioners sat mixed, without distinction according to political blocs. “The republic is in your hands,” Elizalde, a socialist activist, told them.
Chile has gone through a long process of changing the constitution, born in 1980 during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) and reformed dozens of times in democracy. It was the path offered by the political class to citizens after the October 2019 social outburst. After the failure of the process last September, when Chile rejected a project aimed at changing a large part of Chile’s institutions, most political forces with representation in Parliament reached a new political agreement to try again , but in a completely different way than before: 12 constitutional foundations were put in place that cannot be broken – as Chile remains a unitary state – the establishment of this commission of experts who started today and who will work before the elected councilors take office compete, plus a technical committee of 14 lawyers who will act as referees.
consensus
The oldest expert, former justice minister of the second Piñera government, Hernán Larraín (75 years old), presided over the ceremony at the seat of Parliament in Santiago de Chile, in the center of the city. As soon as the commissioners took office, sober applause erupted in the late 19th-century building, witness to the most important events of Chilean political life in recent decades.
Both the ceremony and the attitude of the 24 experts were characterized by restraint and order. It was in complete contrast to what happened on July 4, 2021, when the constitutional convention that drafted the rejected project was inaugurated. This Monday there were no incidents on the streets like two years ago. Due to a lack of agreement in the previous procedure, which was later reflected in the text itself, even the election of the board took several hours. However, the same thing did not happen this time. The specialists, apparently anxious not to make the same mistakes, elected their president and vice-president in less than 30 seconds by show of hands. They were the two names that had already been agreed upon.
“As President of this Expert Commission, I want my trademark to be respect for my colleagues and collaborators and for the supporting collaborators who will help us in this task,” Verónica Undurraga said immediately after her election. “No one should feel invisible, no one should feel exhausted, neither defeated nor defeated. On the contrary, their well-being, respect for their life plans, their dignity, the protection of their dignity will be our goal,” added the center-left lawyer, who came to the commission for the PPD party, the former party’s collective president Ricardo Lagos (2000-2006). The current interior minister, Carolina Tohá, belongs to this party.
The incorporation of the Governing Body reflected the moderation with which this new constituent process begins. The left of the official coalition I Approve Dignity, consisting of the Communist Party and Boric’s Broad Front, will not play a leading role, although their representatives have strategically installed themselves in the thematic subcommittees where they are interested in influencing, for example the political system and the one who takes care of social rights.
The first task of the expert commission will be to compile an index of the draft constitution. They will work against the clock because their proposal must be ready in 90 days to be presented to the Constitutional Council, which will start its work on June 7th.
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