The Chilean president, Gabriel Boric, defended the social policies approved so far in his administration during his delivery of the annual balance on Thursday before the Chilean Congress, to which he insisted that he approve a tax reform that the government deems necessary to finance its program.
In a ceremony at the Legislative headquarters, in the port of Valparaíso, before 800 guests, the president complied with the obligation to give details of his administration period and plans for the rest of his term. The speech lasted for more than three hours.
At the beginning of his speech, he gave a summary of the country that he received 15 months ago, after the effects of the pandemic, and stated that “these have not been easy times.” About the rest of his term, which ends in 2026, He announced that there are “great challenges to be addressed.”
“We have a resilient economy and we are going to take care of it, because we know – and it is a matter of looking beyond borders – that without economic stability, Chilean families” will not achieve their goals, he said.
Boric rendered his balance sheet less than a month after the electoral defeat that represented for his government that the extreme rightto obtain in the polls the majority of the quotas to write who will a second constitutional project to replace the magna carta imposed by a military dictatorship (1973-1990). Eight months ago, the setback came with the rejection of 62% of the electorate to a first refounding text that had their support.
“Constitutional divergences begin to be prosecuted”, highlighting alluding to the start of the drafting of a new constitution next Wednesday, which will be submitted to a plebiscite on December 17.
During his speech, the longest delivered by a president since the return to democracy in 1990, in a conciliatory tone, he repeatedly asked Congress to approve a tax reform that seeks to collect 3.6% of the Gross Domestic Product to finance its social politics. He announced that in July he presented the project again, this time before the Senate, after it was rejected in March by the deputies.
The president reached his annual balance with a popularity close to 30%, in a country that is experiencing a prolonged crisis of insecurity due to the increase in crime, and with the use of the military in the south and north of the territory to stop, respectively, the violence of indigenous groups and illegal immigration on the border with Bolivia and Peru.
He reiterated that a commission will evaluate which lands are the claims by the indigenous and they can be returned. He anticipated that those occupied by cities will not be restored and progress will surely be made on the borders to regain control.
Faced with insecurity, he affirmed that the fight against crime is a priority for his government, for which reason he has allocated more resources to the police. He announced that by the end of his term, the places in the overcrowded prisons will be divided into 4,700, with new facilities or expansion of the current ones.
Among the achievements of his administration, he highlighted the increase gradual minimum wage from 512 to 625 dollars monthly to July of next year, free basic care for those who receive public health care and the reduction of the working day from 45 to 40 hours a week in five years.
Towards the end of his speech, he recorded that September 11 will mark 50 years since the coup that broke democracy and left some 3,000 assassinated, of whom more than a thousand remain missing. He affirmed that through his government’s National Search Plan, all resources will be exhausted to find them and that their families know what happened to them.