The proposal for the new Constitution in Chile becomes a national “best seller”

The text of 388 articles and 178 pages of the proposed Constitution that will be submitted to a referendum on 4 September in Chile has aroused such interest that in the free distribution kiosks the lines of interested parties have been as long as the opening of the first Ikea store in the South. America this week in Santiago.

Since it was delivered to President Gabriel Boric on July 4, the text, which sold for $ 3.8, It also leads the ranking of the best-selling non-fiction books. According to the Lom publishing house, which printed it, about 75,000 copies were sold.

When there are three weeks left plebiscite with compulsory votethe “Refusal” option guides the polls with respect to “I approve” of a new Constitution, a draft that buries the ultraliberal model imposed under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) and which left education, health and pensions governed by the law of the market.

The new text, drawn up for a year by a joint Convention and with an indigenous representation, made up of 154 elected, seeks to implement a state that guarantees social rights, as the citizens asked in the protests of 2019.

“There is a lot of ‘fake news’, but with the booklet now they just gave me I’ll make sure more,” Guillermo Figueroa, a 55-year-old farmer, told AFP as he leafed through the text in the Plaza de la Constitución. in front of the presidential palace of La Moneda, in the heart of Santiago.

read before voting

Thousands of people have paraded in this square in recent days in search of free copies, available at kiosks with the words “Vote informed”. The government has promised to deliver around 900,000 copies free of charge.

Two policemen in green Carabineros uniforms examine the draft they have just received in a kiosk, on the same Wednesday that the first Ikea store in the region opened with great repercussions on the other side of the city.

Some voters are still hesitant about their vote, others prefer to keep it secret. Camille Francois, a 30-year-old engineer, says for her part that she thinks it is an “excellent text, which guarantees the rights and duties of citizens that are super important and that are not written in the other Constitution”.

contradictions

In social networks, memes ironically abounded with the contradictory image of a country that is on the one hand at the gates of a consultation that can mark a radical change in its development model, and on the other is crowded into shopping malls, like those blocks of people eager to be the first to buy something in the multinational furniture chain of Swedish origin.

The campaign to “Vote Informed” is promoted by the Boric government, in favor of the change of model proposed by the new Constitution, after months in which misinformation has proliferated on the contents of the project on such delicate issues as the right to housing, termination of pregnancy or the independence of the Central Bank.

“I reject with hope”, say posters at the exit of a subway, while in another square a graffiti invites the “Burial of Pinocchio on September 4”, alluding to the text approved under the dictatorship of Pinochet.

The commands for both options have spaces on open television for advertising and convince the 15 million voters. In the last week, this prime time space has collected an average of 40 ratings, a very high rating, comparable to the final chapter of a popular soap opera.

According to data from the Electoral Service (Servel) this Friday, the financial contributions for both campaigns are very unequal: the Rejection option received 76% of those funds, against 24% for approval.

scene objects

This week, some 40 prestigious economists and political scientists from around the world came together to praise the draft of the new Constitution.

Overall, we believe the new Constitution creates a legal framework that will succeed in preparing Chile for a new century of fair growth, with prospects of attracting investment, protecting financial stability and promoting development for all Chileans, these researchers in a letter joint.

Among the signatories are economists such as the Italian Mariana Mazzucato, the Indian Jayati Ghosh, the French Thomas Piketty and the American James K. Galbraith.

“I don’t know if it will win the approval, I highly doubt it, and there are many issues here that are difficult to understand, but whatever option comes up, we hope the road will calm down and we all row for the good of Chile,” Griselda told AFP. Peña, a 46-year-old cashier, who asked to vote in four copies of the bill.

“I want everyone in the house to read it,” he said.

Source: AFP

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