What does the Boric government gain from its turn to the center in Chile?

After the triumph of Rejection in the constitutional plebiscite on September 4, Gabriel Boric made his first cabinet change. The parties of the ex-Concertación —coalition that governed post-dictatorship Chile— were the main beneficiaries and their influence grew in the Executive, which gave a clear signal of turning towards the center.

Boric appointed Carolina Tohá, a member of the Party for Democracy (PPD), and Ana Lya Uriarte of the Socialist Party (PS), in the Ministry of the Interior and in the General Secretariat of the Presidency (Segpres), respectively.

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Both portfolios play a fundamental role in the scaffolding of the Executive as they are part of the Government’s Political Committee, a coordination body that meets every Monday at the Palacio de La Moneda. Likewise, the Segpres is the link with the other powers of the State, mainly with the Legislative.

With the arrival of the ministers to the Government, the Executive sent a clear signal of its shift towards the center, since both the PPD and the PS were part of the former Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia, the center-left coalition that governed Chile. between 1990 and 2010. During those years, the economic model inherited by the civic-military dictatorship (1973-1990) deepened.

“It is not something that is so surprising, if one sticks to the legislative results of this year, when Gonzalo Winter [government deputy] called for closer positions with the center to have greater possibilities of maneuver,” the political analyst and sociologist from the University of Chile, Camilo Godoy, told Sputnik.

“Which is understandable, but you also have to have a strategy so as not to leave aside all the people who initially supported the government program,” he added.

Both the PS and the PPD are part of Democratic Socialism, who ran for the 2021 presidential elections in another political bloc and with a more moderate program than that of Apruebo Dignidad, a coalition made up of the Broad Front, the Communist Party and the Social Green Regionalist Federation, who carried Boric as a candidate.

THE ABSENCE OF A REPORT FROM THE EXECUTIVE

Boric arrived at La Moneda with a strong criticism of “age 30” and the post-dictatorship governments. Apruebo Dignidad refused to form a list with the PPD to present itself in a single block to the parliamentary and presidential elections of 2021. For this reason, the incorporation of these parties to the Executive has sparked a series of criticisms.

Some government policies show their shift towards the center, even moving away from electoral promises. For example, it did not file an appeal to invalidate the lithium tender made by former President Sebastián Piñera (2010-2014 and 2018-2022) a few days before the end of his term.

It was the Court of Appeals of Copiapó, in the Atacama region, 834 kilometers from Santiago, that suspended the bidding process initiated by the Piñera government. The appeal, presented by the regional governor, Miguel Vargas, argued that the tender violates several articles of the Constitution and that the deposit is in an area of ​​tourist interest, in the Maricunga salt flat, under the Ojos del Salado volcano.

Throughout the campaign, he manifested for withdrawing Chile from the Comprehensive and Progressive Treaty of Trans-Pacific Association (TPP-11), when it was finally approved by the Senate on October 11, and the project of amnesty for the prisoners of the social outbreak of 2019 , another of his campaign promises, sleeps in Congress without approval, while Boric criticizes Nicaragua’s political prisoners.

“It is as if, in the absence of a script, one said: ‘I better continue doing what has already been done’. This, obviously, affects the initial objective. The absence of a story causes you to be a prisoner of the assessment of the surveys and responding to situations,” said Godoy.

“The ambivalence of these coalitions is a component that, on the other hand, can help in their preservation in power, as former president Michelle Bachelet did so many times [2006-2010 and 2014-2018], relying on her charisma or on the offer of policies while maintaining important aspects of the neoliberal model,” he added.

WHAT GAINS THE GOVERNMENT WITH THE ENTRANCE OF THE PS AND THE PPD TO THE POLITICAL COMMITTEE?

For the political scientist Patricio Urriola, from the Alberto Hurtado University, the incorporation of the PS and the PPD or “any other type of party to the government coalition generates a strengthening of the programmatic deployment.”

Urriola explained that without the PS and the PPD, the government was a minority coalition in parliamentary terms. Therefore, it would be very difficult for him to approve or coordinate legislative work based on the program.

“With the incorporation of the PPD and the PS to the Political Committee, there is more room for maneuver. The PS and the PPD are relevant because they are even more aware of the times and the agreements in legislative terms between both Houses,” added Urriola.

The political scientist stressed that the incorporation of the parties of the ex-Concertación will serve the Government, since prior to the plebiscite, the Executive had shown its full support for the draft of the new Constitution, where one of the articles proposed the elimination of the Senate.

“After the triumph of the rejection and this new context, it is evident that the Government has to seek allies to have a much broader margin of maneuver, to be able to implement its government program and align it, above all, with the consensus that exists in the Senate,” Urriola concluded.

With information from Sputnik (Alexis Polo González)