Plebiscite in Chile: a deep crack divides the country

A deep crack divides the Chileans who this Sunday will have to choose, in a mandatory plebisciteif they approve or reject the Constitution written in a year of work by a specific Assembly, the result of a broad consensus after the popular uprising at the end of 2019.

The bellicose tone that the electoral campaign acquired in recent weeks, with strong verbal aggressions and some scenes of physical violence, demonstrates that it will not be an easy task for the government of Gabriel Boric to approach positions and seek consensus among defenders and detractors of this text which intends to replace the Constitution in force from the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

The proposal that drafted a Constituent Convention elected by the people and formed for the most part by social sectors hitherto marginalized by politics and far from traditional parties, not convincing to a large part of the population.

The latest polls – in Chile they may not be published for two weeks before the elections, but several have circulated in the foreign media in recent days – show a large advantage of the “Reject” option.

Challenge to Gabriel Boric

A challenge to the center-left government Boric, which strongly supported this Constitution, as it is in line with the reforms he proposed and which essentially aim to shake off the neoliberal legacy left by the 1980 Magna Carta, with education, health and pension system linked to the laws of the market, without the state being able to regulate private activity.

The partial reforms implemented by democratic governments have failed to erase that essence.

The Constitution that will be submitted to the polls aims to reverse this situation, as claimed by the crowd that took to the streets between October and December 2019, in a movement that is remembered here as “the outbreak”. And other changes that in principle sought to democratize the political system.

But the result disappointed to a large part of the population.

divided country

“It’s a broken country, deeply divided,” he says Clarione the analyst Roberto Izikson, of the consulting firm Cadem.

“There is a majority consensus that Chile wants a new Constitution, but this is not what was expected,” he says.

The reasons are varied. In principle, the constitutional process itself has been discredited by a series of scandals. The debate was seen live and on TV. “But what the media often amplified were moments of fights, strong discussions and some scandals”, explained to this correspondent the political scientist Claudia Heiss, professor at the Faculty of Government of the University of Chile.

But it is a content that makes noise for many Chileans. The declaration of the country as multinational, with a strong weight of indigenous peoples, it generates fear and unease for many. “Indigenous rights are believed to be overrepresented, which favors these minorities over the rest of the population,” explains Izikson.

The elimination of the Senate, which the text proposes, is also a severe blow to a historic institution in the country.

The right to abortion, mentioned in the proposal, worries even the most conservative sectors. And increasing the right to housing has generated fears of private property. “A discourse has been created that this is a socialist and expropriatory constitution, although this is not real,” says Heiss.

The truth is that, amid a strong campaign of discredit and disinformation, this new Magna Carta seems to open another passage in society.

The climate of mistrust, also clouded by an economic crisis that worries here for levels of inflation that have not been seen for decades, unemployment and slowing growth, do not help heal the wounds of the 2019 epidemic.

Santiago, special correspondent