In Chile the radical left wins. Review of the constitution in sight, and problems for electric cars
In the elections to define who will rewrite Chile's constitution, traditional parties, including the center-right coalition ruling of President Sebastián Piñera, Chile Vamos, have been severely punished , seeing their parliamentary seats and influence drop significantly in favor of both independent, far-left and radical candidates.
With over 90% of the votes stripped on Monday afternoon, the Pinera coalition won just 20% of the 155 seats in the Constitutional Assembly (at 37 seats), while the traditional center-left parties collected only 25 seats, leaving the side of the lion to "radical blocs" which include communists and independent leftists who are keen to implement radical changes to the Chilean constitution which dates back to the military rule of General Pinochet.
The radical reworking of the constitution was a central demand of the 2019 protests triggered by high costs of living and rampant inequality (which famously, it must be remembered, was initially triggered by a $ 0.04 hike in the subway price given the long hot rage among the working class).
During the 2019 anti-inequality protests that rocked Chile, via AFP
According to the BBC, now with more than 98% of the votes counted, "independent candidates had secured 48 seats, 28 from the left, 25 from the center-left and 37 from the right-wing coalition." And another 17 seats will go to representatives of indigenous groups, the latter who were a driving force in the protests and riots of 2019.
Given that the government in power has completely failed in its battle to secure the level of a third of the seats, which is necessary to block major changes, the new draft constitution will certainly be biased towards the left, indeed towards the radical left, a draft that will be confirmed by a popular vote in 2022.
Chile had the most liberal constitution in South America, a legacy of the last one was Pinochet. The radical change has frightened the markets and the weight has also been affected.
There are big fears for lithium, of which Chile is one of the major world producers. The mines are given in concession to private individuals on the basis of the old Constitution that the radical left wants to revise. Therefore it is likely that these will be canceled or deeply revised, leading to their nationalization or to an increase in the costs of extraction and therefore of production of lithium batteries. A sort of oil crisis of the '70s, but based on electricity.
We will see if the new constitution will combine growth and social justice, or if it will pave the way for a period of turmoil.
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The article In Chile the radical left wins. Review of the constitution in sight, and problems for electric cars comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/in-cile-vince-la-sinistra-radicale-revisione-della-costituzione-in-vista/ on Tue, 18 May 2021 07:00:43 +0000.