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A blow to the chair occurred this day in the Independent Democratic Union (UDI), with the triumph of deputy Javier Macaya in the elections this Saturday over former Interior Minister and former Senator Víctor Pérez.
According to the results reported by the party, Macaya reached 55% of the votes, while his contender obtained 45%, with a total of about 10,000 voters, out of a potential universe of 43,000.
The result is interpreted as a sign of “punishment” from the UDI militancy towards the Government and a real bucket of cold water not only for the former chief of staff of Sebastián Piñera, who sought to return to the front line of the political arena, after his resignation from the government.
It also represents a tough defeat for Jacqueline van Rysselberghe, who, prevented from holding the presidency, was positioned as vice president on the continuity list. But, above all, it is a new blow to Pablo Longueira, the once strong man of the unionism who in the first instance tried to lead the list, but ended up taking a step aside by being disabled with his political rights before the imminent start of the oral trial for the SQM case.
Behind Macaya meanwhile, is another former Minister of the Interior of Piñera, Andrés Chadwick, one of the “colonels” of the unionism. In fact, many consider him the “dolphin” of President Sebastián Piñera’s cousin.
In addition, the new president of the UDI has the majority of the bench of deputies, headed by María José Hoffmann. The parliamentarian for San Antonio was the candidate in the first instance, but finally she chose to cede the candidacy for the presidency to Macaya, and now she will occupy the strategic position of secretary general.
Another fundamental supporter of Macaya is Ernesto Silva, former deputy and former president of the unionism of whom he was its secretary general. Silva is also considered a “factotum” of Joaquín Lavín, one of the main presidential letters of the unionism.
For Macaya it is a rematch of what happened four years ago, when he suffered a loss of 52% versus 48% against Jacqueline van Rysselberghe. But now he will be in charge of leading the destinies of a party hit by acts of corruption that have ended up shaking several of its referents -such as Jovino Novoa, Pablo Longueira, Jaime Orpis or Pablo Zalaquett- but which maintains two figures in the pole position of the presidential race, like Evelyn Matthei and Joaquín Lavín. “A nice dilemma”, as defined by the new party president.
“With as much unity as possible”
From the defeated list they assumed the result. Víctor Pérez pointed out that it was “a clean and transparent process” and launched a unified message, stating “that the UDI will be strengthened.” “We are sure that Javier Macaya will lead the game in very difficult moments,” he said when visiting the party headquarters to congratulate the winner.
Meanwhile, the new president of the union extended his hand to the former controllers of the party, noting that “we are inviting the current board of directors and Víctor Pérez’s list to work with the maximum possible unity to work on what is coming.”
Regarding future challenges, Macaya said that he will not seek to “defend the shelf of what we have achieved, we do not want to fight for the 22% of Chileans who were for the Rejection, we want to be able to go for more, we want be protagonists of the Constituent Assembly ”. “Here is a team that is going to change the face of the UDI,” added the new union helmsman, who also confessed that he received a call from President Piñera to congratulate him.
When it comes to finding the reasons for Macaya’s triumph, in the internal UDI they point to the weekend quarantine in the Metropolitan Region, with 52 communes in confinement because of the pandemic, and the electoral weight of the deputy in the region of O’Higgins. In that area, it is worth remembering that Andrés Chadwick was a senator for many years.
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