Clues delivered by Chilean President-elect Gabriel Boric in his first five days

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The installation of Gabriel Boric as President-elect has been carried out within the institutional parameters, with all the republican rites between the outgoing Government and the one that will take office.

It was not an entirely predictable event, as had happened on all occasions because there were tensions until the last minute between La Moneda and the command of Apruebo Dignidad over issues such as the public telephone call between President Sebastián Piñera and Boric, which was unblocked in the course of the same Sunday of the elections in delicate negotiations.

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This fact shows that the issue caused tension among the emerging forces embodied in Boric’s circle, but that finally -possibly due to the impulse of the President-elect himself- it was decided to take the traditional paths after a presidential election.

WILLINGNESS TO EXPAND TO THE CENTER-LEFT

Gabriel Boric’s President-elect has expressed his intention to open up to new forces beyond the bloc Apruebo Dignidad of the Frente Amplio with the PC. Since the campaign, it has been his interest, and he landed it immediately in his speech on Sunday night, after the triumph. “There is the awareness that Apruebo Dignity alone is not enough”, assured Wednesday Giorgio Jackson, who will have a central role in the new Government.

In this line, everything indicates that Boric will incorporate militants of the Socialist Party into the cabinet (the deputy Maya Fernandez, among others), which would not necessarily mean that the alliance will expand. In Wednesday’s meeting of Apruebo Dignidad, it became evident that not all are in the position of opening the coalition to other forces, considering them “social democrats”. However, militants of these parties may lead ministries.

This is one of the tensions that will be resolved in the first weeks and months, as it happens in other matters of substantial importance: the position of the President with respect to the complaints about the Law of Internal Security of the State, in a matter that seems not to have been completely solved yet.

RESCUE OF THE FIGURE OF AYLWIN

In his first speech as president-elect, Boric assured: “History does not start with us. I feel I am heir to a long historical trajectory, that of those who, from different positions, have tirelessly sought social justice, the expansion of democracy, the defense of human rights, the protection of freedoms. This is my big family, which I would like to see reunited again in this stage we are now starting.”

It was a gesture to the Concertación, and at some point, he made a visible nod to Patricio Aylwin by emulating him in his speech when he took office in March 1990.

Somehow, these gestures towards the Christian Democrat reflect how Boric himself is seen: as the one who initiates the transition towards a new political cycle, where the logic of agreements was crucial. It remains to be seen, in any case, if it will materialize.

RESPONSIBILITY AND GRADUALNESS

Boric has repeatedly spoken these days of responsibility, in line with his second-round campaign, which allowed him to jump from 25% to 55%.

“It will not be easy, it will not be fast, but our commitment is to advance along that path with hope and responsibility”, he assured in his first speech, where he used the exact phrase of Pepe Mujica, by guaranteeing that it will be walked “step by step”.

This responds to a predominant strategy deployed by the President-elect, his circle, and coalition in these first five days since his triumph: that of reassurance, which still does not set the trend.

In this line, Boric has tried to calm down those who ask for quick signals, such as the early appointment of the Minister of Finance, setting the same deadlines as his predecessors (Piñera appointed his ministers on January 22).

“If there is one place where the young government coalition would benefit greatly from having someone with the experience that the center-left has, it is in the Finance Ministry. Besides the fact that it would be an important signal to reassure the markets”, assured in an interview to Ex-Ante the economist Noam Titelman, one of the founders of the Frente Amplio, about a race where faces that caused enthusiasm in Boric’s world, such as Andrea Repetto, have left.

PIÑERA’S UNIVERSAL GUARANTEED PENSION

The political climate that has been installed in Chile probably made it possible on Wednesday for the House Finance Committee to unanimously approve the Government’s Universal Guaranteed Pension (PGU) project, with an excellent prognosis of going ahead.

After Monday’s meeting between Boric and the current President, Sebastián Piñera, this issue was touched upon, which was strongly received by the Parliament, that begins to unblock a vital project that will reach 90% of the population and that had been paused.

It would be an extraordinary case: in the recent past, a government project of this magnitude has never been enacted in a transition period, supported by both presidents, the current and the incoming one.