How Chile will change
Chile facing a historic turning point: an experiment of national renewal through political confrontation. The in-depth study by Livio Zanotti, author of the “ ildiavolononmuoremai.it ”.
Chile does not just turn the page, it changes the book: with the plebiscitary vote that throws Pinochet's Constitution into the wastepaper basket (again he, the shadow that heirs and beneficiaries reflect, yes: 32 years after the referendum that forced him to renunciation but not surrender without conditions), he said he wanted to conquer a full democracy, that he was willing to face even the unknowns, some of them insidious, hidden in a vote that suddenly pushes the country of extreme South America into postmodernity. Some may see traces of populism in it (this term rendered useless by the crude abuses of which it is a victim), certainly it is a process that after having fed on it now also goes beyond the reform policies of Chile following the horrors of the military dictatorship, in order to get rid of the deep inequalities that remained. unfulfilled.
It is the result of an unpredictable year, which nevertheless confusedly (but not entirely) rumbled in the belly of the country, starting with the student protests at the start of this decade, in the austral winter 2011 (a thousand arrests in 12 hours were not enough to stop them). Not even the explosion of the square following the careless increase in the price of public transport just twelve months ago was understood in its gravity by the government of President Sebastían Piñera, who had already had the experience of 10 years earlier. Again he thought of suffocating her with the carabineros: super-compressed jet fire hydrants and plastic bullets fired in the faces of the demonstrators who were blinded by the hundreds for the rest of their lives and the dead. On October 25, he found himself with over a million Chileans occupying downtown Santiago – the largest protest ever seen in the country.
A week later a gigantic general strike proved that not only the young demonstrators of the first hour were anything but isolated, but the indignation at the violent repression they had been victims of (not without sadistic ferocity in many carabineros commands) , had shaken public opinion, the sensitivity of families and large trade unions and finally of traditional politics. Even in Sebastían Piñera's moderate-right party, Renovación Nacional, still born with Pinochet in power to facilitate a transition to controlled elections, critical voices rose. And although the President did not immediately take it for granted, boasting an alleged control of the situation, the following week he had to agree with the great majority of Congress in the announcement of this Sunday's referendum.
His defeat appears evident and (also considering his age) excludes him from further presidential re-nominations. In this sense it is a finished political story. He is finally succeeded by Joaquin Lavin, a conservative economist, member of Opus Dei and leader of the Independiente Democratic Union (UDI), who grew up during the military dictatorship alongside and in permanent competition with Piñera in the nursery of young pinochetists. He is a figure that has survived many defeats thanks to good administrator skills and the absence of prominent competitors, however worn out. In the coming months he will have to deal (like and more than all the others) with the unprecedented cultural as well as political framework opened by the vote that upsets the current parliamentary and social balance. However, he is aware of it, to the point that he now declares himself a Social Democrat (another term now ectoplasmic).
More than half of the 19 million inhabitants contributed to the renewal ratified by the vote that for the first time in its history brings Chile towards a constitution decided from below, by popular will. Many more than those who voted in recent times (in the administrative 3 years ago they were 36 percent). In spite of the serious difficulties posed by the coronavirus pandemic, particularly aggressive in Chile due to the privatization of healthcare that has left a large part of the population defenseless and the serious delays of the government in taking shelter (more than 18 thousand deaths in 7 months). The victory of the renovators was predictable and foreseen, not so its size, which turns it into a triumph. The tactical decision of the right not to obstruct it openly, rather to adhere to it in part, in the secret of the polls got out of hand.
Voters were called to two choices. The first: to say yes or no to a new Constitution. And here the popular pressure in favor was so explicit and strong that all the parties called for a positive response. The second: indicate whether the Convention of 155 constituents called to draft it should be made up entirely of new elected members, or should it have a mixed composition, half of new elected members and half of representatives of Parliament in proportion to their representativeness (the latter formula which would have favored the right, currently the majority). Approximately 80 percent, an overwhelming vote, has chosen that the wording of the country's new magna charter, the basis of its next social pact, be entrusted to new elected officials. A New Testament will rule Chile.
It is, to date, the only certainty. Because the result of the Referendum, despite its clamorous uniqueness, opens a long and complex process, whose political and social conclusions do not appear to be taken for granted at all. Suffice it to consider that the Constituent Convention will vote according to the quorums established in the old constitution. The renewal is inexorable and if it were to disappoint beyond all reasonable expectations it could give rise to conflicts of unpredictable consequences. Such that no one wishes it. Ultimately it is a question of opening constitutional rights to the needs of the poorer classes, reducing inequalities in principle, guaranteeing access to education and health for all, gender freedom, adjusting wages to the cost of living to relaunch a economy that has imploded due to the narrowness of the domestic consumer market. Almost half a century after the election of Salvador Allende, Chile is once again facing an exemplary political experiment.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/come-cambiera-il-cile/ on Tue, 27 Oct 2020 06:30:52 +0000.