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His return to the political front line is not by chance. Moreover, it was concocted by the factual powers of the union with clear objectives: to prevent “the left” from appropriating the triumph of the Approval in the plebiscite of October 25, that the Government is trapped in the defeat of the Rejection option, to shield the image of Joaquín Lavín and, incidentally, formally recover the power of the UDI. But what was not well weighed in the design was the fact that things have changed a lot in recent years, even inside the street party Sweden, so it was not even remotely calculated that the reappearance of Pablo Longueira in the The political scene was going to generate resistance, friction and problems in the unionist hosts themselves.
On Sunday, August 30, the former minister reappeared with an interview in The Mercury and then that same night in MegaInstances in which he announced that – like Lavín – he was going to vote for approval in the plebiscite and that he would run for the Constituent Convention. Beyond the initial commotion and the brave bar in social networks, the truth is that with the passing of the days and the various interviews that he has given in these days, since then things have become entangled, because far from generating unity planned, their interventions would be putting internal stress on the UDI, along with bringing to the fore the scandal of the SQM case and the illegal financing of politics, an episode that was a true nightmare for the community.
During the past week it had already been commented that Longueira would return fully to the situation, because the conversations with his family and part of his inner circle had been filtered with the specific purpose of paving the way to the political bet of causing a “shake-up” on the right, to the doors of the 18 key months in political and electoral terms. In top sectors of the UDI it would have been detected that the party ran a serious risk of weakening its capacity for political influence, if the list of dissent was made of internal power once the management of the current helmsman, Jacqueline Van, ends. Rysselberghe.
Not for nothing, in his interviews, Longueira has insisted that, along with running for the Constituent Assembly, one of his goals is to be the next president of the UDI. An aspiration that within the union was understood as an imposition and triggered internal resistance, especially from the dissent. With deputy María José Hoffmann at the helm, a sector of the bench responded publicly to the former minister that if he wanted to lead the party he had to compete, a statement that set off alarms.
In fact, in those who initially applauded and were even moved by the return of the former president, they have begun to make visible objections to the figure of Longueira, because they understood that his mere presence is a direct electoral threat to the other list. The internal tension that was installed is not a minor issue for the UDI, because the internal board became more disordered than was thought, because it put in check the internal order necessary to face the intense electoral calendar of the next year and a half.
Salvage operation
Apart from the internal power in the UDI, the return of Longueira had its reason to be in wanting to prevent the defeat of the Rejection on October 25 from being a defeat for the Government of Sebastián Piñera, and for the entire ruling party, a diagnosis shared by several representatives of the current administration. And it is that a thesis that has been around for a long time is that, if the Approval wins by about 80%, this victory is awarded to the opposition and with that – they pointed out – there is the temptation to question the mandate of Piñera, which would greatly affect the governance of the current administration. Hence the background of the former minister’s speech is understood, who is betting that everyone, including the Government, will join the Approval. In this way, the victory of the opposition on October 25 is taken out of their hands.
And knowing that it is an almost impossible task, it is that in his statements Longueira even dared to insult those who are for the Rejection, in a risky maneuver, accusing his campaign of unintelligible and pointing out that, to be for that option, is be on your knees, trying to cause a reflective effect, but that so far has only generated antibodies and internal criticism.
One of the objectives of the Longueira operation is to downplay the plebiscite. In one of his videos uploaded to the YouTube platform, he openly stated that the idea is that the referendum “be irrelevant.” This is complemented by the speech that President Piñera himself has also installed and that aims to look beyond October, where the ruling party would find itself more armed than the opposition.
The operation also brings with it the objective of closing another flank: to shield Lavín, who with his ideological flexibility has removed more hives than expected. Examples are many, but the most relevant this time have been defining himself in favor of the Approval, his support for the withdrawal of 10% of the AFP funds, and declaring himself a social democrat, which opened a too extensive flank and with the risk of bleeding from his party to the extreme right. The figure of Longueira in this case comes to close ranks with the mayor of Las Condes, to record before the whole world that from the most traditional of the sector, from the cradle of unionism closest to the foundations of Jaime Guzmán, ideologist of the Constitution of 1980, there is also a complementary look: his.
Although there are those who saw a “nonsense” in his speech and impetus, considering that the bases already voted for the party to play it for the “Rejection” and that the campaigns were already in full swing, within the board they have seen with good eyes the strategy at this point, because while the UDI helmsman closes the more conservative flank by aligning with José Antonio Kast’s speech, on the other hand, Longueira aligns himself with Lavín with a view to the center, which allows the community a “perfect” scenario to walk calmly towards October and avoid the plebiscite with a protected exit after the defeat.
The colonel’s flanks
His landing was accompanied by a speech to the Prosecutor’s Office, where he not only said that they do what they want, with an anti-institutional tone, or that he is going to sue the National Prosecutor, Jorge Abbott, but Longueira also pointed to the Defense Council of the State (CDE), since he accused the lawyer María Inés Horvitz of communist, whom he pointed to as one of the factors that would have him in a scenario of judicial uncertainty.
The truth is that Longueira is awaiting an oral trial, after having been accused of bribery in his position as Minister of Economy during the first government of Piñera, this within the framework of the investigation of the SQM case, one of the two more major cases of corruption of political silver that shook the country’s institutions.
In the case of the accusations for false invoices, framed in the other edge that came together, such as the so-called Penta case, it was the inaction of the Internal Revenue Service that made it impossible for the Public Ministry to continue investigating.
Although within the party they tried to lower his profile, pointing out that the majority of unionism would be convinced of his innocence and that there is a persecution, the words of the mayor of Providencia, Evelyn Matthei, turned everything in the community. In an interview with CNN He did not shy away from pointing out that “he is not in a position to preside over the UDI”, that the former minister “first has to solve that”, alluding to his open judicial flank in the SQM case.
“One of the main problems that we have and that originated the social outbreak is that it costs most of the people in Chile enormously to make ends meet and meanwhile we have politicians, generals, priests who have committed other types of abuses, we have businessmen … deep down there is a robbery from Chileans that has not been sufficiently sanctioned either by the courts, or by the Comptroller’s Office, or by any party and it is difficult to build anything in Chile because the institutions have collapsed in their credibility ” , sentenced the UDI mayor.
Without a doubt, his words were an internal bomb in the unionism, which was shown by the unbridled reaction of the former president, who accused Matthei of “bad milk” and said that his words were in “bad taste”.
Longueira’s judicial flank caused the first internal clash in the political committee. In a risky maneuver, considering his role as Interior Minister, Víctor Pérez publicly put his hands on the fire for the former senator: “I am a friend of Pablo Longueira, I have known him for more than 30 years, and I am sure that Pablo Longueira is absolutely innocent , he will prove his innocence. ” But in La Moneda not everyone is about to immolate themselves for him, since the spokesman Jaime Bellolio, also a UDI, took a notorious distance and, according to his role as Secretary of State, specified that “the Government is not responsible for saying whether a person is innocent. or not, that corresponds to the courts of justice, there is an investigation that is underway and, therefore, it is not for us to interfere in that. “
Not for nothing are there a few in the UDI who no longer consider Longueira’s return and prominence such a good idea.
But SQM is not its only weakness. Although the internal does not cause any kind of resentment, the recent past of Pablo Longueira as lobbyist It has been an obligatory corridor comment, since undoubtedly – they recognize in the party reservedly – it is one more flank to take into consideration, thinking about the link that citizens make between unionism and big business.
In charge of the “Austral Group”, the former minister had among his objectives to raise about 10 million dollars to carry out his “Austral Park” project. It is in this character that he was registered by the Lobby Law on several occasions, being remembered his appointments with Pablo Badenier, the former Minister of the Environment of the then President Michelle Bachelet, as well as with who was the Commander in Chief of the FACH, Jorge Robles , and the former general director of the Carabineros, Bruno Villalobos.
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