Change of government in Chile: The return of (fragile) hope
Citizens will be demanding results when evaluating Gabriel Boric's presidency
Written by
Nicolás Lazo Jerez
Translated by
Liam Anderson
Translation posted 9 January 2022 21:05 GMT
Image of Gabriel Boric giving his victory speech in 2021. Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Gabriel Boric, recently elected president of Chile for the period 2022-2026, has a task of gigantic proportions before him. Starting March 11, when the current president, Sebastián Piñera will pass the reins of government to him, he will have to face the ongoing threat of COVID-19, an economy weakened by continuing inflation and a new political term—that day a part of the parliament will also be renewed—without a large majority to ensure a broad consensus. The hope that Boric has sparked in his voters will soon have to face a difficult reality.
On top of this, there are the country’s unresolved structural challenges, such as the debt of young people in university education, inequity in access to healthcare, and the failure of the private pension system imposed during Augusto Pinochet‘s civil-military dictatorship, among many other issues. The difficulty of the work ahead will be unlike anything Boric has known so far.
The presidential campaign took place in the middle of a consultative process to renew the constitution, which was activated through a public vote after the October 2019 crisis, when thousands of Chileans took to the streets to demand a new social pact. Gabriel Boric, representing the left-wing grouping Apruebo Dignidad, won the presidency in the second round on Sunday, December 19, with 55.87 per cent of the vote, compared to 44.13 per cent for the far-right ex-deputy José Antonio Kast, who was strongly opposed to the idea of a new constitution.
The 35-year-old president-elect knows a thing or two about taking on tough challenges. A decade ago, together with other leaders, he headed a massive student movement that demanded free, quality public education from Piñera, who at that time was in his first term as president. Now, during the last part of his second term as deputy for the southern region of Magallanes, Boric gathered the signatures in support of his presidential candidacy at record speed, won a primary where he was not the polls’ favourite, stoically endured the personal attacks and fake news from Kast, and won in the runoff with a difference of about one million votes after coming second in the first round, so becoming the youngest and most voted-for president in Chile's history.
More:
https://globalvoices.org/2022/01/09/change-of-government-in-chile-the-return-of-fragile-hope/
