Why did Chile vote ‘no’ to the new Constitution once again? 5 keys to understand the result

Constitutional fatigue

This Sunday’s election cycle closes a political cycle that began in the heat of the 2019 social epidemic. The drafting of a new Magna Carta served as a bargaining chip to deflect the crisis by stink. rebellion with anti-capitalist aspects. The epidemic has arrived. Then the first voter election. A joint congress was launched, producing a strong progressive text depriving the right of veto power. The left was betting on the creation of a social state of law that would not leave traces of the neoliberal experiment. However, this initiative failed to pass the public vote filter in September 2022 and was restarted almost from scratch. The far right won the elections, allowing it to dominate the new constitutional council. The sweetness of victory led him to repeat the mistakes of previous experience: His constitution also could not be imposed at the ballot box. The preferences of a large portion of Chileans have become variable. These changes of opinion have reached a point of no return. Analysts diagnosed “constitutional fatigue“Last year’s double stumble and this market’s protest vote Against political leaders. “Politics remained indebted to the people Chile, and it is paid for by achieving the solutions that Chileans need and demand from us,” President Gabriel Boric acknowledged.

Boric and the left have no reason to celebrate

“The constitutive process It was supposed to bring hope but it disappointed“, the young president added, that there was no possibility of profiting from the election results. During these years and after two unsuccessful runs, “the country became polarized, divided.” “Legitimate differences were not always expressed in a constructive way.” “In an attempt to convince voters with terrorist campaigns was found. The result left the left government with a lesson that is unlikely to be applied. Boric, whose approval rate was below 40 percent, pointed out that although the election result was positive, it was “strong”, a significant portion of those who voted for the “Accept” option cannot be underestimated. “Not to make the same mistake again that was made in previous plebiscites”. The victors in a contest cannot “give up on or ignore the secondarily defeated.” Despite the president’s call for “greater capacity for dialogue and consensus,” there appears to be no sign that this call will bear fruit. He said the ruling party and the opposition “must abandon trenches and impose partial visions so that they can focus on finding solutions to the most pressing problems that Chileans face in their daily lives, which continue to cause legitimate discomfort.” But popular consultation was only one part of the book. deep political divisions On the same Sunday, the official project of a project began to emerge strongly around it. tax reform inherently progressive. Chile, which will close 2023 without economic growth, has other pending problems that do not seem to allow positions to converge: urban security, drug trafficking, the fate of lithium and the healthcare system.

Kast’s misstep

“Kastitu” It was called the constitutional project prepared under the leadership of the far-right party Republicans, led by José Antonio Kast. The reactionary nature of this initiative on environmental, gender, social and economic rights was indisputable for the force that managed to drag the traditional conservative parties along. But Kast had two goals: Not only does he impose the Magna Carta through a vote, but he also turns the vote into a plebiscite for the Boric administration. Neither event occurred and The desire to be an invincible candidate in the presidential elections to be held at the end of 2025, They questioned themselves, continuing the wave that started with Javier Milei in Argentina. “There is nothing to celebrate, the damage Chile has suffered is enormous,” he said. son of a former Wehrmacht officer and Nazi Party activistHis brother Iguel served as Pinochet’s minister and became head of the Central Bank. “We have failed in our effort to convince the Chileans that this is a better Constitution than the current one and the safest way to end political, economic and social uncertainty.” His only consolation is that “Neither the government nor the left can celebrate.” Kast has a formidable rival in the ideological arena. Evelyn Matthei, He belongs to the right-wing Independent Democratic Union (UDI) party. “What I really wanted was to have a Constitution that could be approved by 70% of Chileans. That would be ideal.” The Republican leader’s defeat could strengthen his electoral bid in two years.

He lost but won

“The Chileans said clearly: They prefer to continue with the current Constitution Kast, who never wanted to eliminate the 1980 text, said, “I am closing this long discussion.” The horizon of change he complained about at the time stemmed from a “rebellious” situation in the past, and everything was returning to its former state. Not only the Republicans were “comfortable” with the current Magna Carta, the same thing happened to other right-wing parties, the left and center-left tried to turn the page completely, which sparked the epidemic. Following the danger that represented “Kastitution”, some progressive literature began to appear. The “good side” of the “Pinochet” ConstitutionIt was modified at various nodes during the first two decades of the democratic transition. Francisco Vidal, a former minister of the Concertación, pointed out that it is inappropriate at this point to continue to attribute the authorship of the current text to the former dictator, as the name of the alliance between social democrats and Christian democrats that was in power between 1990 and 2010. . “From the perspective of content and reform, This is already (Ricardo) Lagos’s Constitution, there is nothing left of Pinochet“.”The Constitution wasn’t that bad after alland I can safely say that we stayed with what we had,” added another former minister, José Miguel Insulza.

What about this now?

“During our mission the constitutional process is closed; “Emergencies are different”Boric emphasized the achieved facts. According to the newspaper ‘La Tercera’, his admission that there is no room for now to restart the discussions means “a cultural defeat of the left”, which has been advocating for the elimination of the institutional matrix inherited from the dictatorship for years. In a country where it is so difficult to make a deal, the Government and its enemies have at least committed to a deal. Not encouraging a third constitutional process. However, the right wants the ruling party to fully fulfill its promise. Former constitutional advisor Alejandro Köhler believes that “a moment of peace will open” in the country after the country transitions from a left-wing congress to a far-right constituent council. Nothing is completely closed. In this context, Adolfo Ibáñez University professor Cristóbal Bellolio reminded that among the reforms made in Pinochet’s Magna Carta was the extreme reduction of the majority quorum in Congress. Political majority can change the text again This one survived. However, this majority does not currently exist. There is no desire for revival.