Santiago de Chile (BLAZETRENDS).- The president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, said that the country does not want “a partisan Constitution” and he was confident that the constitutional council that will be installed next week “will seek to achieve a proposal magna) that can be embraced as its own by a wide majority”.
“We do not want a partisan Constitution, but rather an inclusive Constitution that welcomes free democratic play, that promotes agreements, that speeds up decisions so as not to continue postponing reforms that are urgent for citizens,” Boric said before Parliament in his second public account. in which he took stock of his 15 months in office.
The new constituent process in which Chile is immersed arose as a result of the plebiscite on September 4. When 62% of citizens rejected the first proposal for a Constitution. He proposed a radical change to the Chilean institutional framework, drawn up by a convention with a majority of the left.
Boric’s opinion
The composition of the new body is completely different from the previous one and, in the May 7 elections, the ultra-right won 23 of the 51 seats, which gives it the power to veto constitutional norms.
The ruling party only got 12 seats and the traditional right of Chile Vamos got 11 councillors.
The last seat is for a Mapuche activist elected in the quota reserved for indigenous peoples. While the center-left parties that governed during the transition to democracy were left out of the body.
“I am confident that a proposal will be sought that can be embraced as theirs by a vast majority of Chilean men and women, in such a way that we can close this page and have basic certainty to develop our lives and businesses,” said the president. .
The 51 directors will take office on June 7. They will have five months to work on a draft written by a group of experts appointed by Congress.
the new constitution
The bill includes 12 basic principles previously agreed upon by the parties to avoid a refounding proposal, like the one rejected by the majority in September.
Boric, in favor of changing the current Constitution inherited from the military dictatorship (1973-1990), campaigned in favor of the first proposal, but recognized the error after the failure in the plebiscite.
The previous convention, he acknowledged, “did not endorse the need for a meeting, for unity, for understanding that Chilean men and women needed, generating a climate of reciprocal intolerance and confrontations that ended in the rejection of the proposal that emanated from it.” .
“In retrospect -he added- we should have been more firm and promoted and demanded greater dialogue and transversal consensus, both within the convention and with respect to it with society.”
The two constituent processes, that of 2022 and the current one, arose after the social outbreak of 2019. The largest protests since the end of the dictatorship, which left some thirty dead and thousands injured.
pension reform
Boric warned that Chileans “will not tolerate a new failure” in the pension reform and therefore urged the opposition to dialogue and move forward “with speed, responsibility and commitment” in the processing of a law that solves what he considers an “urgency”. national”.
The president recalled that this reform, promoted by his Executive, has been paralyzed in Parliament for seven months. And he stressed that the government “is available to talk to meet the objective.”
“We have the duty to improve the pensions of Chileans today, not tomorrow or in 10 more years,” said the president about a change in the pension scope that has been pending for nearly 15 years.
The current government insists on the creation of a mixed system. With an increase in the contribution up to 16% by the employer and the possibility for the State to manage the funds. Although there are other private investment managers such as the current AFPs.
Health
In terms of health, the president referred to the crisis faced by private health insurers (isapres) due to a Supreme Court ruling that obliges them to pay their affiliates amounts associated with excessive charges since 2019 and to apply a single table of prices.
“Chile could not understand a new pardon,” Boric snapped at the criticism of the union of the isapres of the project promoted by the Executive that seeks to comply with the ruling of Justice, to later insist that his Government “is open to agreeing on solutions and alternatives” that allow compliance with the ruling “responsibly”.
The president also proposed to reduce waiting times by 40% at the end of his term and promised to increase resources in mental health – “the largest investment in the last 30 years,” he said – and to set up fifteen centers.
Education reform
Boric also referred to the pending commitments in education and promised that, once the tax reform is approved, he will forgive the debt for studying at the university, on the one hand, and on the other, he will pay the historical debt that the dictatorship contracted with public school teachers who at the time did not receive a salary readjustment contemplated in the law.
“Last year I promised to introduce a bill (to end student debt) once the tax reform was approved and my commitment continues,” said the president.
The tax reform was rejected by a few votes in March in the Chamber of Deputies after a controversial vote. And it must finance the main reforms of its program: health, pensions and education.
The president also addressed the students of the emblematic high schools of Santiago who in recent times have staged protests to improve their school conditions.
“I was a student leader and I understand the frustration that unfulfilled promises for years can generate, but the Molotovs, the white overalls and the intimidation of those who think differently is not and will never be the way forward,” he said before insisting on “solving the problems” of the students “with concrete commitments and deadlines, but without violence”.
