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Every time a government authority has been consulted for the obvious contradictions they have had in handling the health crisis, rarely has an error been publicly acknowledged as such in the Palace, and basically the strategy has been to avoid darts, blaming to second intentions of the opposition, the press or even the public for not respecting instructions. But after the increase in the number of people infected by coronavirus last weekend, within the framework of the so-called “new normal” and the “safe return” that La Moneda bet on, this time the Piñero administration had to face questions from his own sidewalk, the oficialismo, where the annoyance and concern have already settled.
On Friday, May 1, President Sebastián Piñera said that “we have to restart our society, because if we remain quarantined we are going to have a social crisis of unemployment”, but three days later he took a turn in his words and yesterday He called to “respect quarantines” and to comply with all the preventive measures that are being adopted to avoid COVID-19 infections. From La Moneda they asked to understand the “contexts” in which the President made each of his statements, an explanation that –two months after the health crisis started and with a string of errors in tow– on the right itself they claimed that it no longer convinces them.
It is that neither in the last political committee held yesterday, nor in other instances that escaped from a bilateral meeting, La Moneda has recognized in front of its own people any flaw or mistake in the political, communicational and health strategy that it has launched in front of the coronavirus. The point is that from Chile Vamos they stressed that, by not opening the space for internal discrepancy, the Government has dragged all the ruling party in its errors.
Tensions strained even further on the right on Sunday, after Health Minister Jaime Mañalich announced –after an emergency meeting with President Piñera– the increase in quarantined communes and warned that new decisions will be communicated when the situation warrants it and not just once a week. A harsher tone and in a totally opposite sense to the “safe return” speech that has been unfolding in the last two weeks.
Among those who have acted as squires of the Government, they confessed that the erratic strategy promoted by the Palace has already overcome the patience of several in Chile Come on, because they are the ones who must give explanations to their voters and that it increasingly costs them more than the people understand what they are trying to do from La Moneda.
In sectors of the government there are not two readings. The “new normal” and “safe return” clearly constituted a strategy deployed at the wrong time and with marked conceptual errors. There is a coincidence that La Moneda should have waited for the peak of contagions, to explain to citizens more clearly what the necessary and gradual return to everyday life consists of. On the right they insisted that the claims have been sent to the highest authorities in the Palace, including President Piñera.
Two weeks ago from La Moneda they tried to close ranks of their hosts behind the slogan of “safe return”, but the internal panorama was disordered these days, since in Chile Vamos reigns -recognized from the Senate benches- the “distrust” in what your own government does. Official parliamentarians warned how complex it is to have to “put on the face to call for the ‘new normal’ and, after a while, put on the same face to beg for the quarantine to be respected.”
A few days ago President Piñera said that he had met with his family and grandchildren, who even embraced each other, a statement that the right did not like at all, because it is one more of the public contradictions that the authority has had during these two months. In this regard, the helmsman of RN, Mario Desbordes, said in an interview in Third that “we all have to follow the instructions that the WHO has given us: hopefully we will not go see the elderly (…) and obviously take care of ourselves until we are out of this pandemic.” He added that “what the President raised would be a bad example.”
Dirty rags are washed at home
Publicly, the self-criticism from La Moneda is conspicuous by its absence, but behind closed doors some assured that there are instances in which mistakes have been recognized, such as not having been able to land well before public opinion in what the famous “new normality” consisted of the one that was betting. From Palacio they explained that what they tried to do was to anticipate a reality that will be reached once the worst moment of the pandemic is over and that it was believed that doing it in time was the most appropriate, although, In light of the results and criticism, clearly the tact was not needed to meet that goal.
Although there was a good initial evaluation of the idea of putting out the “new normal” fire with another slogan that gave more certainty, such as “safe return”, finally in La Moneda it was found that it had no echo in the citizenry. Today, given the meager results, no one is in charge and both initiatives were attributed to Mañalich.
In La Moneda they know that on Sunday the Health Minister seemed a little “desperate”, but his change of tone was considered correct and correct, when he coined the phrase “the battle of Santiago” to refer to the increase in cases . Where there were internal frictions was in the environment of the President –they added–, with the letter that Mañalich played when attributing responsibility to the citizens in the increase of infections, which would also have been a proposal of the former general manager of the Las Condes Clinic .
The spaces of self-criticism are quite limited in the Palace and not many exercise it. In fact, some of his tenants confessed that they resist accepting the failure of the line followed in recent weeks, so all expectations – they pointed out – are set in the epidemiological report that will be delivered this week to the authorities. Said document should show that it was possible to “sustain the plateau” of infections and, therefore, that the route followed by the Government has been correct. But if it throws a break to the upside, there really will be no room not to assume the mistake.
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