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Without giving names, Camilo Escalona denounces that there are people who are behind the presidential candidacy of Paula Narvaez, who seek to bypass the party institutions and attack against the socialist leadership led by Álvaro Elizalde
“I have had the opportunity to discuss these points of view at length with her (Paula Narváez) in the last hours,” says the former parliamentarian to The Third PM.
Escalona and the former chief of staff of Michelle Bachelet belong to the “New Left” within socialism, and when he was a senator from Los Lagos, she stood out in various positions in the regional government.
-Do you support Narváez’s candidacy?
-I support her, but first you have to encourage her to accept being a candidate, because it is still a theoretical possibility. From my personal position, I believe that his application should be constructed as an alternative of unity and understanding in the PS. I do not agree with those who want to rely on her name to act against the party leadership and even to seek other ends.
-What and who are you referring to?
-To many phrases that I have read this week on social networks that link Paula to other purposes than those of her presidential nomination. For example, I support it, but according to what some say in a letter, I could not do it … since they argue that only the party bases can adhere to it, and I am not in that category, because I have a responsibility as a Party leader Socialist (…) There are some who want to make these presidential nominations a reckoning of the last 30 or 40 years, and that seems absurd to me. The alternative that must be built in the PS is to propose to Chile a new development model that takes charge of the deep crisis that Chile has.
-And what does she think of that?
-Paula Narváez does not deny what happened (in the previous center-left governments). She was part of the government of Lagos and Bachelet, she is part of what was built during all these years. But his alternative does not look at the past, it is to build the future, a new alternative for Chile. This candidacy cannot be considered either, as others have pointed out, as an independent option of the parties, because for this process the parties are fundamental.
-But all the polls indicate that the public wants candidacies away from the parties …
-Just as the wide world of the independents cannot be ignored or undermined, because the majority of Chileans are independent and the political party system is in a moment of strong discredit; in order to have a socialist candidacy capable of establishing itself as the main force within the world of the Progressive Convergence, then win the primary of the Constituent Unit defeating the candidacy of the Christian Democracy, then face the first round and go to the second round, the territorial, social and programmatic force of the political forces is needed. The candidacy of Paula Narváez has to be to unite the PS, not to separate it.
-Were you surprised by Michelle Bachelet’s support?
-No, because she was his spokesperson in very delicate moments of his government. There is a tune, without a doubt. But I repeat, one cannot think that such an ambitious political project, with a scattered opposition and without a common project, can be installed from outside and imposing it on the political forces. On the contrary, it has to be an application that is made as part of a collective political project.
-Have you been close to and supporting Elizalde’s management, is it true that he was upset by Narváez’s irruption?
-No, I think there are many who tend to demonize Elizalde and forget that he played a key role in the realization of the November 15 agreement that opened the way to the constitutional process. Today there are many who use the constituent process to dress, but did nothing to generate the political conditions. I think that the damage to Elizalde’s management is an own goal, it’s a bullet in the feet.
-Are you in favor of electing the PS candidate in the primaries?
– Naturally, that was what the Congress of the Socialist Party agreed. That’s nothing new. I don’t know why people try to raise a false dilemma. In the event that there is only one candidacy, obviously there cannot be primaries, but if there are two or three, of course there must be primaries.
-If there are more applicants, will you be with Narváez?
-I encourage her to assume the candidacy. Today above the political party system, which is weakened, there is no doubt, there is a main engine which is the women’s movement. And consequently, a figure that is linked to that feminine movement, a woman who has fought all her life for women’s rights can unite more. But that is your task: to unite and not to separate.
