RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Chilean president, conservative Sebastián Piñera, fulfilled during 2020 only 3% of the legislative promises he included in the program presented at the beginning of his second non-consecutive term (2018), a study revealed Wednesday.
The report of the NGO Fundación Ciudadanía Inteligente analyzed the degree of fulfillment of the 256 promises associated with the presentation of bills in Congress contained in the program of Piñera, who last March 11 completed three years at the head of the Executive branch.
Since 2018, the president has advanced 37% in his legislative agenda, but only 3% in the last year. He has completely fulfilled 32 announcements of the 256 electoral promises since he was sworn in, while 125 had no progress, the study pointed out.
The greatest progress was in Science and Technology, with 85% compliance with bills, Defense, with 80%, and Gender Equity, with 69%.
At the other extreme, there are three areas in which the Chilean government has not yet presented any of the bills it promised when it won the elections: Public Works, Transportation, and Telecommunications.
With respect to the Health area, which is especially relevant in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, there was 52% progress. However, the laws related to the modernization of health services remained at 0%.
Colombina Schaeffer, deputy director of Ciudadanía Inteligente, noted that the government has a “responsibility to the citizenry” and that “the pandemic cannot be an excuse for not complying with accountability.”
“Today, we are in a period of lack of trust and legitimacy of the political system in general, that is why government promises must go in line with citizen demands,” she said.
Piñera’s 37% overall compliance with his program three years in office is slightly below the 47% shown by his predecessor, Michelle Bachelet (2014-2018), in the same time interval.
Piñera, a billionaire businessman who began his second non-consecutive term in office with an approval rating above 50%, became in 2020 the ruler with the lowest support in Chile’s democratic history by reaching barely 9% of citizen acceptance, according to data from the pollster Cadem.
This figure came against the backdrop of the social crisis that erupted in 2019, the largest wave of protests since the end of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship (1973-1990), with demonstrations clamoring against the government and inequality.