Piñera’s candidate Sebastián Sichel gets complicated in Chilean presidential race

A complex moment saw Chile’s right-wing presidential candidate Sebastián Sichel, after competitor José Antonio Kast, also on the right, came out with grace from the last presidential debate, and for not responding if he took money out of his pension fund.

Sichel’s complicated present tense It started on September 22 when the first televised debate in the country took place, which brought together 5 of the 7 candidates who will contest the first presidential round on November 21.

On this occasion, Sichel, according to political analysts, was one of the most affected. The expert opinion concluded that the ruling party he was “touched” by the attacks of the ultra-right candidate José Antonio Kast, and that he did not know how to “detach himself from the idea of ​​being the candidate of companies and the government”.

In the opinion of analyst Axel Callis, Sichel “was quite touched by Kast. Kast made Sichel look bad. He tried to break away from the idea of ​​being the candidate of businessmen and government, but he did not succeed., despite the fact that he presents himself as the president of SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises). Sichel has lost his freshness. This Sichel, who looked energetic and young against Lavín and Desbordes, doesn’t wear that anymore ”.

A similar opinion had the analyst Marco Moreno who did not doubt stating that “Sichel was embarrassed by the format. He avoided controversy as much as he could and he treated politics badly. It was he who came out of the debate the most damaged, without envy or figures ”.

The poor performance of the official candidate was confirmed after the Chilean Cadem poll confirmed that José Antonio Kast was the “winner” of this first debate with 28% of the preferences. In second position, the letter from the center-left Gabriel Boric with 25%. Sichel only managed to get 15% of the mentions.

Added to this was the support of a right-wing parliamentarian for José Antonio Kast’s campaign, ignoring the ruling bloc’s order to support Sebastián Sichel.. This was the case of MP Leonidas Romero who before the debate announced his support for Kast, angering the board of directors of his political party Renovación Nacional (RN).

The AFP withdrawal bomb

Sebastián Sichel’s bad moment worsened in the last days after the high authorities of the Chilean state admitted to having withdrawn money from their pension fund, even though the government opposed this policy.

Since last year, Chile has authorized three exceptional withdrawals of money from pension fund administrators (AFP), due to the health and economic crisis affecting the country. Currently, a fourth withdrawal project has been approved by the AFP with the support of the deputies of the Sichel sector, and as part of this initiative is that the Chilean authorities have gradually admitted their withdrawals although they were publicly against it.

In Sichel’s case, the candidate repeatedly refused to answer if he had made any of those three withdrawals. The former minister of Sebastián Piñera was upset by the inquisition because he is one of the main detractors of this public policy.

At the insistence of the media, Sichel replied that “I am not going to fall into this moral debate” and that “we are not going to fall into the theft of enlightenment that the left is setting up”.. However, the socialist deputy Fidel Espinoza assured that Sichel would have made the first withdrawal of the AFP.

“The owners of the AFP are friends of President Piñera, they are friends of the presidential candidate Sichel, who until recently was the most stubborn opponent of withdrawals, withdrew in two installments from Cuprum his first 10% withdrawal, which is not illegal, but to show his face, and if he wants to be president of Chile, tell the truth, ”Espinoza said.

Changes in the Sichel team

This whole scenario triggered a series of changes in the team accompanying Sebastián Sichel’s candidacy. This week, lawyer Cristóbal Acevedo was added as general campaign coordinator, who previously served as Sichel’s communications advisor.

Acevedo replaced former deputy Pedro Browne who will now be the political coordinator of Sichel’s campaign. The former parliamentarian will join businessman Juan José Santa Cruz, who also holds the post, according to Chilean newspaper El Mercurio.

While former Under-Secretary for Crime Prevention Katherine Martorell will be in charge of the national coordination of spokespersons, while the deputy and vice-president of the lower house Francisco Undurraga and the former minister of women Isabel Plá were included as spokespersons for the campaign.

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