Piñera feels the harshness again after the respite from the vaccination plan

SANTIAGO, Chile.– In March 2022, the Chilean president, Sebastian piñeraHe will complete his second term, but he still has several litmus tests. One of them has overflowed these days. A political crisis that started with the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic and which is directly linked to the discussion on a third withdrawal of 10% from private pension funds. The government opposes it, but political and social pressures put Piñera in difficulty.

Last Friday, and with the votes of representatives, including the ruling party itself, The Chamber of Deputies approved the Senate changes and the last procedure has been carried out, so the bill for the new withdrawal has already been sent to the executive for adoption. However, anticipating this scenario, La Moneda appealed to the Constitutional Court (TC) to block this initiative.

“I say it loud and clear, we will always defend respect for the Constitution”, declared Piñera before seizing the body which tomorrow will decide on the admissibility of the unconstitutionality requirement presented by the government. If he decides against, the bill cannot become law.

Along with the advancement of the discussion in Congress, the position of the Piñera administration once again heightened political tension and re-instigated social unrest in the country. Countless civil organizations united a general strike in favor of the third withdrawal, and the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT) called for a national demonstration the day after tomorrow, in rejection of the blockade of La Moneda.

In addition, various incidents took place in the streets during the week, such as cacerolazos and clashes between police and protesters. The main assertions emphasized demand approval of a third withdrawal of 10% of private funds maintained by pension fund managers (AFP) and expand the scope of cash assistance implemented during the pandemic.

“The government is at an impasse. If you persist in going to TC, you will drop even more in popularity. If it gives up, it will remain as a government lacking in credibility, since it has systematically said that it will resort to CT. The most reasonable thing was to be part of the project and avoid this kind of political epidemic that the country is experiencing, ”he said. THE NATION Mauricio Morales, political and academic analyst at the University of Talca.

“Piñera is fighting with the Congress, with the opposition, with his own coalition and with the presidential candidates from his sector who beg him not to resort to the TC. The only way out is for the government to present its own retirement plan, mimicking the strategy it used for the second retirement or, if it does not want to, establish a universal policy of providing bonds for inject direct resources into the population. and avoid a larger political setback, ”added Morales.

In the past few hours, Piñera himself has started conversations with various political actors to define a way out of the crisis and has started exploring new formulas for financing social assistance for the pandemic. In fact, The Chamber of Deputies this week approved the idea of ​​legislating on the so-called “tax on the super-rich,” a bill that establishes a single tax of 2.5% of gross wealth for people over 22 million. dollars.

In any case, among the main proposals that have emerged is to move forward with a tax reform or to implement a plan of direct transfers of resources, which avoids a new withdrawal of pension funds, which has already led three millions of Chileans not to have money in their individual accounts.

After an explosive start in his immunization program which placed him as the region’s leader in dealing with the pandemic, in the first days of April the inoculation rate decreased. With 6,796 cases in the last 24 hours and more than 1,263,000 infected, in addition to 101 deaths according to the last report and 25,724 victims in total, the loss has been recognized in different municipalities.

“It is quite obvious that in Chile vaccination has slowed down, especially considering the speed of administration of the first doses,” he said. THE NATION Ignacio de la Torre, President of the Medical College of Valparaíso.

During the week, Health Minister Enrique Paris admitted the loss. “We vaccinate more than 300,000 people a day, because we had to add the flu (…) I can not force the primary care workers to work Saturday and Sunday,” said Paris.

According to the latest data from the Ministry of Health, Almost 14 million doses were administered, divided into 7.9 million people with a single dose (41% of the total population) and more than 6 million people with two (39% of the target population of 15,200,000 ), mainly with the Chinese vaccine Sinovac and a little more than 10% with the drug Pfizer-BioNTech.