New political earthquake in Chile: what does the result of the primaries that reconfigure the map of power mean?

The land of earthquakes continues to be rocked by major political earthquakes. These are first of all the historic mobilizations at the end of 2019 when a Chile emerges which wants to get rid of the legacy of the Pinochet dictatorship once and for all. Then, the constituent convention was plagued by diversity and independence. And now, the interns of two of the three major coalitions that mark the rise of a new young management detached from the past which leaves in their place all the former bishops of Chilean politics, from the PC to the UDI via the DC-Socialismo agreement which governed the transition and now is attached left and right.

Against all odds – again polls were lacking – the former student leader turned into deputy of the new non-dogmatic left, Gabriel Boric, won the presidential candidacy. He ran for the primary for the November elections in the Frente Amplio coalition with Communist Party candidate Daniel Jadue. It took 20 points of difference. The new autonomist left with global referents such as Bernie Sanders and Yanis Varoufakis it took precedence over the traditional PC, still imbued with nostalgia for Salvador Allende’s time and which continues to claim the Cuban Revolution.

Boric, 35, became known as the leader of student protests calling for free and quality education in 2011. He has been a member of parliament since 2014 for the region of Punta Arenas, in southern Chile. He was one of the deputies who signed the peace agreement in Congress on November 15, 2019 for the drafting of a new constitution, which won him criticism from the traditional left and the support of many young people who voted for the first or second time in their lives, as well as those who were disillusioned by the old government Concertación. “There are three things that are clear about me: I am a Magellan, a leftist and a crusader” he defined himself as “the Croatian” Boric. The crusader is because of the fanaticism he has for his club, the Catholic University.

On the other side, on the right, Sebastián Sichel, 43, won, that he presented himself as an independent to face the big parties which are today in the government of Sebastián Piñera. He defeated Joaquín Lavín, the candidate for the Independent Democratic Union, the party that emerged as a “democratic” extension of the dictatorship. The former mayor of Las Condes and Former spoiled midfielder General Pinochet was also beaten by nearly 20 points. This is probably Lavín’s political end after three defeats as a presidential candidate.

Sichel, 44, began his activism in the Christian Democracy (Boric also emerged from this party). During Michelle Bachelet’s first government, he was deputy director of Sernatur, the national tourism agency, between 2006 and 2008. Later he was appointed senior advisor at the Ministry of the Economy and he remained there until 2010. He left politics for eight years and devoted himself to teaching and business. He ended up resigning from DC and getting closer to Piñera who appointed him Minister of Social Development, President of CORFO, the industry development company, and President of Banco Estado.

He comes from a very modest family. They lived in a house in Concón, facing the sea. “There was no electricity, no water, no bathroom. We cooked with wood. The nuns “adopted” me, I always had someone to do it to be ordained and a good student, “he said in an interview. Later he studied law at the Catholic University, where he graduated. lawyer and a master’s degree in public law with a mention in constitutional law. He ended up working as a university professor in the same specialty. Although in football it is one of the rivals, the University of Chile.

“It is clear, once again, that as Argentinian writer César Aira said, Chileans prefer something new to something good. Especially when that good thing is bad enough. Even more when this seemingly new connects with something essentially old that seemed to have changed and hasn’t changed: the Chilean is above all a creature of the center-left. He can turn right and left when nothing has worked, but there is hardly any such thing as a more or less coherent reform program he will vote for him, “he wrote. Rafael Gumucio in the review The clinic.

Germán Silva Cuadrin The counter Gumucio ended what he started with this definition: “Beyond the mistakes Lavín and Jadue made in the home stretch, what was obvious was that a political era is over in Chile. Beyond the support of La Moneda and the powers that be, Sichel made it clear that the “traditional” right, that of the elite and the old traditions, was overtaken by the new reality of the country. Boric, for his part, has shown that he was not wrong about the agreement of November 15, 2019 and that the center-left had long needed to shake off inertia and give way to a new style, leadership that is more empathetic and connected with people ”.

This leaves, precisely, dislodged the center-left which had reigned since 1989. She was very comfortable waiting for the electorate to go to extremes when it crashed into the center. Socialist psychologist Paula Narváez, Minister Secretary General of the Government in the second government of Michelle Bachelet between 2016 and 2018, seeks to rush an off-schedule primary With theto the Christian Democrat President of the Senate, Yasna Provoste. There are some DC maneuvers that could lead to a breakdown of the historic coalition. While everyone agrees that whatever it is should be worked out in the coming days, before Boric and Sichel slip away from them. The elections are barely four months away.

Meanwhile, after a turbulent start, the Constitutional Convention chaired by Mapuche professor Elisa Loncon is in session. There are 155 voters gathered in the historic building of the old Congress in downtown Santiago. Among them, 17 representatives of the peoples of origin and 27 of the Popular List, formed by the social movements that gathered in the Plaza de la Dignidad during the 2019 revolt. The average writer of the new Magna Carta is 45 and at least six are from the LGBTI community. A real rainbow that must be completed in less than a year. By then, a new government will be installed in La Moneda. And the president who emerges from the elections – today he seems all centered on Boric and Sichel – will be the one who receives the new regulations that will govern the country. An administration that will be responsible for put the many demands for social justice on the agenda arising from the protests barely put on hold by the Covid and this post-Pinochet Constitution.