(EFE) % scrutinized), becoming the party with the most votes at national level and doubling the traditional right-wing seat.
“Today we can breathe a little easier,” said its leader José Antonio Kast, who lost to President Gabriel Boric in the 2021 presidential election and is a staunch defender of the model established by the military dictatorship (1973-1990).
With 35.4% of the vote, she swept most of Chile’s 16 regions, their traditional strongholds in the south, in the north, and even conquered left-ruled fiefdoms like the Valparaíso region.
If the Republicans unite with the center-right, they would have more than the 30 seats needed to pass the new constitutional norms without having to agree with the left.
The President, Gabriel Boric, called on the Republican Party to “act with wisdom and moderation” and urged the formation “not to make the same mistakes” as the first constitutional process, which was dominated by the left and after last September A rejection in a failed referendum on the Magna Carta proposal.
“We have to say that the previous process failed because we didn’t know how to listen to each other among those who thought differently. I would like to invite the Republican Party now not to make the same mistake as we did,” he said.
If the Republicans align with center-right Chile’s Vamos (UDI, Renovación Nacional and Evópoli), which received 21.1% of the vote, they would have more than the 30 seats needed to pass the new constitutional norms, without having to agree to it, thereby setting the tone for the new Magna Carta proposal.
“This process must not be a revenge campaign, but must put Chile and its people before partisan or personal interests,” said Boric.
“When the pendulum of history swings incessantly from one extreme to the other in a short period of time, it is always the weakest who suffer from the confrontation between the elites. It takes leadership to stop this pendulum motion,” the President added.
Despite the fact that the official list came in second place, receiving 28.5% of the vote, Boric said Chile once again has “an opportunity through dialogue and meetings to build a Magna Carta that represents the country’s desires.”
The 50 directors – 25 men and 25 women – will take office on June 7 and have five months to draft the proposed text, which will be put to a referendum on December 17.
Despite coming second on the official list, Boric said Chile once again has “an opportunity through dialogue and meetings to build a Magna Carta that represents the country’s desires.”
On the same day of installation, the directors receive a draft drawn up since March by 24 experts appointed by Parliament, which corresponds to 12 basic principles agreed a priori by the parties to avoid a re-establishment proposal like the previous one.
“In this scenario, it is very likely that the constitution that emerges from this process will not be an enabling constitution. It is a guarantee of the status quo and the strengthening of the Republicans’ presidential options,” Director of the Faculty of Government told EFE at the University of Chile, Claudia Heiss.
Republicans repeated the surprise they already gave in the 2021 election when they won the first round of the presidency and won 16 parliamentarians in the legislature (15 congressmen and one senator, although three of them left the party). But now, for the first time, they will chair the body responsible for discussing and adopting a new constitution.
“There is a distribution of power that is different from what we thought and that changes everything: the constitutional debate will change because the issues that are in the constitution that will be important to the government will depend on the Republican Party,” he told EFE analyst Kenneth Bunker of think tank Tech Global.
Kast’s overwhelming victory changes the balance of power in the new Constitutional Council from the previous convention, which was dominated by the left and a majority of independent candidates who, unlike today’s elections, could run on their own lists.
For the deputy director of the Institute for Societal Studies, Rodrigo Pérez, one of the keys will be whether the right “choice to emphasize their loudest side or whether they implement a policy of looking for allies,” he told EFE.
During the election campaign, Republicans lashed out at the rest of the opposition, although Kast, who had left the traditional right-wing coalition of which he had been a member for more than 20 years in recent days because he saw it as too moderate, gave in to signs of it , wanting to put more dialogue on a style.
For the deputy director of the Institute for Societal Studies, Rodrigo Pérez, one of the keys will be whether the right “chooses to emphasize their loudest side or whether they implement a policy of looking for allies”.
After the rejection of the first constitutional proposal in September, the centre-right, in contrast to the right, opted from the outset to resume the constitutive path.
According to analysts, the conservative Chilean Seguro coalition is now weakened and at a crossroads between adopting the extreme positions of the Republicans or adopting a more dovish profile of its own.
Independent Democratic Union (UDI) MP Juan Antonio Coloma, the bloc’s main formation, acknowledged that it was a “triumph of the opposition” led by the Republicans: “We will not make the mistakes of the left in the previous process ” he claimed.
For Rodrigo Pérez, “the leaders of the traditional right fail to achieve a project that appeals to large majorities and they face a complicated mix: building an identity with which to connect with voters and understanding that moderation alone is not enough to create a to be a political project “,
For her part, Alberto Hurtado University political scientist Federica Sánchez put the Republican electoral victory into perspective, noting that while the right-wing had gained veto power in the Constitutional Council, the opposition leader in Congress remained center-right.
According to Bunker, the Republican Party phenomenon in Chile corresponds to a “factional dispute” of the Chilean right vying for space dominance
According to Bunker, the Republican Party phenomenon in Chile corresponds to a “factional dispute” of the Chilean right vying for space dominance.
For University of Chile political scientist Octavio Avendaño, however, there are similarities between Kast’s Chilean right wing and their counterparts in other countries, particularly on issues related to insecurity and the migration crisis, albeit with elements from within the country itself.
“The Republican Party is also drinking from the aftermath of the social outbreak and the ongoing economic crisis, which is creating uncertainty and a sense of unease in a citizenry increasingly striving for order and stability,” Avedaño concluded.
________________________
Collaborate with our work:
The 14ymedio team is committed to serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for accompanying us on this long journey. We invite you to continue to support us, but this time by becoming a member of our newspaper. Together we can continue to change journalism in Cuba.