The refusal to approve the new Constitution is growing and the former presidents of Chile are distancing themselves

Faithful to what has been its year of activity, the Constitutional Convention of Chile will close its process of preparing a new constitutional text with another controversy. After deciding not to invite the former presidents to the closing ceremony and delivery of the final text, a wave of criticism prompted them to reconsider the decisionNo, but it was already too late. Former presidents Eduardo Frei, Ricardo Lagos, Michelle Bachelet and Sebastián Piñera refused to attend.

This “disagreement” occurs just over two months after the plebiscite, when pollster Cadem’s “Public Square” opinion study reported the increased intention to vote for the “Refusal” option to the text that the Convention will propose. . According to the organization, their voting intention reaches 46%, while 37% of the population is inclined to approve it. 17% are undecided on the elections.

The intention to vote for approval, according to Cadem director, Roberto Izikson, is linked to the lack of trust citizens have in the convention. 42% of the interviewees trust and 56% distrust their work.

Furthermore, the survey shows that 58% of Chileans feel fear before the constitutional proposal, while 36% feel hope. In the same poll, people’s stance on the invitation to former presidents e 63% said they needed to be invitedwhich could denote how the visions of the organization have been decoupled from the visions of citizenship.

The invitations

In the first list of guests, the body chaired by María Elisa Quinteros did not consider those who were presidents of the country after the dictatorship and are still alive, apologizing for the capacity limitations. This decision is consistent with the critical position held by the Chilean constituent powermostly from the lefton the development that the country has had in recent decades.

I am Frei, Lagos, Piñera and, to a lesser extent, Bachelet, held responsible for failing to generate a situation of greater social justice. For the same reason, their presence at the event was strongly opposed by members of the social and collective movements of the hardest wing of the left.

However, the decision to exclude former presidents was misjudged at all levels. This is because if there is anything that Chile prides itself on, it is its republican tradition and respect for its institutions. For this the Council of the Convention decided change your decision last Thursday and formally invite them.

Each with its own nuances, the former executives refused this invitation, with letters qualified as criticisms, both for their content expressed and for the tone derived from them.

Former president Lagos (socialist) devoted nearly two pages in his letter to remember the constituent power of the four times he collaborated, through trades or consultants in your officea, in the various discussions that have taken place in the organization over the past year.

On some of those occasions it was to clarify or provide a story of criticism that he considered unfair to his administration, such as when he sent a document explaining that “inequality has decreased and per capita income has never increased as well as between 1990 and 2010 “.

Lagos concludes his letter by alluding to capacity restrictions which were used as an excuse not to invite them in the first place.

“The above reflects the interest I have had in collaborating, to the best of my ability, with the work of the Convention and for this, given the difficulties that exist regarding the capabilities that must be respected, I ask you not to consider my name in the ceremony. “says the former ruler, who according to the advisers of his circle closing was a “subtle irony”.

More succinct was Eduardo Frei, who in no more than three lines stated that “although I appreciate the invitation to the Plenary Session of the Constitutional Convention of 4 July, This time I will not participate.

Frei belongs to one of the historical parties of the Chilean center-left, the Christian Democrats, strongly divided between Approval or Rejection of the proposed new Constitution. In the case of the former president, his greater proximity to the moderate sectors of the community means that, from his circle, they bet that he could lean on for having rejected the text of the plebiscite.

For his part, former president Sebastián Piñera, who initiated the constitutional process, expressed strong criticism of the organization in the letter in which he formalized his refusal to participate. “As for your invitation to attend the 4th of July ceremony, I think of the confusing and contradictory way in which the former presidents were invited it does not honor the republican tradition of respect of our country, “he said.

“Constitutions must be the great framework of unity, stability and projection, within which different ideas are democratically discussed, legitimate differences are resolved and a better future is built for all”, Piñera expresses in the letter, adding that “in Chile we have been parting for more than 40 years and discussing the 1980 Constitution, despite its many and significant reforms ”.

“The vast majority of Chileans do not want to continue dividing and discussing the Constitution for the next 40 years. He wants unity and that the Constitution be everyone’s home “, concludes the document Michelle Bachelet, in parallel, she was the most enthusiastic of the former presidents of the process.

However, he will not participate either. An adviser in his office told the Convention that he will not be able to do this “on the agenda” given his position as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, which he will leave at the end of August.

PB