[ad_1]
The deadline was Wednesday, September 30 until 5:00 p.m. Shortly before, starting at 4:00 p.m., the presidents of the parties began to arrive to register their pacts for the primaries mayors, councilors, governors and regional councilors.
But the days prior to the definition were full of tension and last-minute changes, which ended up redrawing the political map for the next April elections.
On the one hand, unexpectedly, Chile Vamos managed to show signs of unity and reached a pact between the UDI, RN, Evópoli and the PRI, despite the fact that in recent months they had faced a string of disagreements, in which they even confronted his own government, putting the continuity of the coalition at risk, as well as at the internal level, as occurs -particularly- with the case of RN.
However, they managed to agree to go to the primaries in Vitacura, the main knot of the entire negotiation, where Camila Merino (Evópoli), former Minister of Labor and until a few days ago, high executive of the Arauco forestry business will compete; Pablo Zalaquett (UDI), former mayor of Santiago and La Florida; and Max del Real (RN), councilor of the commune, anointed by the current communal chief, Raul Torrealba (RN), to succeed him in office.
On the sidewalk in front, meanwhile, Until the last moment there were negotiations for a “marriage” between the center-left -mainly the former Concertación- and the Frente Amplio. Over the weekend, the latter announced publicly that they were subtracting from the option of a pact, but on Monday they slipped the option to withdraw as long as “minimum” conditions were met.
So they were negotiating until Wednesday, at the headquarters of the Socialist Party in the heart of Santiago, where the PPD and several other opposition blocs were also present. At the decisive hour, the Broad Front decided to walk on its own and headed for the Servel headquarters, just a few blocks away.
The PPD president himself, Heraldo Muñoz, recounted the scene: “At the end of the negotiation, before the time to go to the Servel arrived, we were surprised that in the last meeting with the party presidents there was none of the Frente Amplio (…) and we were there, left as a boyfriend, a girlfriend, a few meters from the altar ”.
However, it was not the only surprise or the only ones left abandoned at the last minute. The ex-Concertación remained without an agreement with the Broad Front and finally brought together only a sector of the center-left, which they called Constituent Unit.
And in that group appeared a couple of surprise guests. Or not so much, since it is about the “return” of some off-hook and old acquaintances, which is why a kind of “new” Concertación was formed.
On the one hand, Ciudadanos, founded by the former Minister of Finance Andrés Velasco, a movement that had been flirting with the DC for months.
On the other, the PRO of Marco Enríquez-Ominami, who at the time also absorbed Alejandro Navarro’s COUNTRY, and made a last-minute move to also make an agreement with his old acquaintances from the ex-conspiracy and particularly with the radicals.
And in the same act they left the Communist Party and the Social Green Regionalist Federation – who will not hold primaries – and were left “without warning”. At least that is how the FRVS deputy, Jaime Mulet, accused him: “Until 4 in the afternoon the PRO was together with the rest of the Unit for Change, lamenting that there would be no primaries,” and then “ending with a right-wing party like Ciudadanos it is a setback and makes the situation absolutely difficult, it is uncomfortable ”. A scenario that rethinks from now on the close relationship that the PRO and the PC had forged in recent times, added to the need for the mayor of Recoleta, Daniel Jadue, to bring together the opposition, if he wants to specify his presidential aspirations.
For its part, the Broad Front also registered its own pact in all categories: mayors, councilors, cores, and governors. Like Chile Vamos, the bloc ended up exclusively grouping the members of its conglomerate, which to date are the Democratic Revolution, Social Convergence, Commons, the Liberal Party, Fuerza Común and UNIR.
Together but not mixed
On the sidelines, the truth is that Constituent Unit registered a particularity with respect to the other registered pacts. They did not register municipal primaries, as they only did so for regional councilors and governors. And ironically they were united only to settle the latter.
Meanwhile, to define the candidates for the Core, they defined 3 groups: Constituent Unit Pacts, with the PS, PPD and independents; Christian Democracy Pact, with the DC, Citizens and Independents; and the Progressive Radical Change Pact, with the PR, PRO and independents. In short, they chose to go together, but not mixed up.
The environmental pact
Thus, with a cohesive right in power and with three opposition parties, the Equality Party, the Pirate Party, were left on the sidelines of those pacts; Humanist Party, led by Deputy Pamela Jiles; and the Green Ecologist Party, led by Deputy Félix González, who left the Frente Amplio last year.
Although not for that they will be left out of the primaries. At least the latter. Outside of the media eye, they were the first to register their pact on Friday, September 25 before Servel. “We are going to create our own list, with independent people, for the primaries of governors and mayors (in addition to cores and councilors). Because there are many people who are not going to vote for the right wing, but they are not going to vote for the Concertación and the Broad Front either, because these two coalitions like to reach agreements with the right. And when agreements are reached with the right wing, it is the right that wins, ”said Félix González after registering his list.
[ad_2]
