International media describe as “overwhelming” the triumph of the approval and highlight citizen participation

“Historic referendum in Chile: an overwhelming majority bets for change and approves of leaving the Pinochet Constitution behind”. This is how BBC Mundo titled this Sunday regarding the results of the plebiscite in which both the option of Approval and the Constitutional Convention won. And it is that the use of adjectives such as “overwhelming”, “overwhelming”, were some of the terms used by international media to inform the result of this Sunday’s plebiscite.

The English media stressed that “this is not only the first time in the history of Chile that citizens are called to vote whether or not they want to change a Constitution; it also marks a milestone by being a Magna Carta whose drafting will remain in the hands of a collegiate group directly elected by popular vote “.

According to the outlet, the analysts who interviewed “They agree that the new Constitution will not solve all the problems, but it would be a very important first step to restore a social balance in Chile.”

“End to a chapter of the dictatorship: Chileans vote to write a new Constitution” is how it headlines The New York Times. As an “overwhelming” majority the US media described the triumph of the approval. The media recalled how the plebiscite was held only a little after a year of the social outbreak was commemorated. According to the media, for many Chileans the vote also had a “symbolic” charge compared to the Constitution created in 1980, despite the reforms that it has undergone over the years and especially the battery of those carried out during the mandate of Ricardo Lagos.

While ABC He titled the result of the plebiscite as “Crushing victory in favor of constitutional change in Chile.” ABC highlighted citizen participation. “Yesterday’s plebiscite, despite being held in the midst of a deep social, political and economic crisis, to which was added the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, was marked by a high flow of participants”, he indicated.

The French newspaper Le Monde highlighted, in addition to the massive participation, the speech of President Sebastián Piñera, especially his call to unity. This is the title of the chronicle in this regard, which also highlighted the “euphoria” with which protesters gathered in Plaza Italia to celebrate the result. The medium picks up a woman who exclaimed that “I never imagined that Chileans could unite for such a change.”

Meanwhile, the newspaper Clarín from Argentina titled as “Historic plebiscite in Chile: overwhelming support for the change of the Constitution inherited from the Pinochet dictatorship”

The trans-Andean medium recalled that the triumph of the Approval occurred in the framework “An electoral process that arose in response to the massive social protests that broke out a year ago.”

“If the final count confirms it, Chile will leave behind the current Constitution, drawn up during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) and considered by many as the origin of the country’s great inequalities ”.

With the same tone the newspaper expressed The Country of Spain, which in its edition for the Americas highlighted that Chileans “buried the Pinochet Constitution.”

“It has been a day where Chile has shown its civic culture and, at night, thousands of people gather in the Plaza Italia area, in the epicenter of the concentrations in Santiago, and other cities in the interior (…) Chilean movement is not led by classical institutions, such as parties and unions. Thus, no political force could claim a triumph that, above all, was the protagonist of the citizens”, Indicated the prestigious Spanish newspaper.

“Chile approves by an overwhelming majority to draft a new Constitution,” the newspaper headlines The world, also from Spain.

“More than 14.7 million Chileans were called to go to the polls in a vote that was held in the midst of the new coronavirus pandemic and filled with sanitary restrictions and protocols to prevent possible outbreaks,” said the European media, highlighting the level of plebiscite participation.

“The constitutional pact was an operation sponsored by President Sebastián Piñera to appease the social outbreak that originated on October 18. It was an exhaust valve designed in extremis when the majority of opposition leaders had adopted a tactical position in which they believed that the government would fall victim to its unpopularity and the mistakes made in dealing with violence. Piñera was highly criticized because, in the early morning hours that followed October 18, he issued the State of Emergency and spoke that the protests had unleashed ‘a war’, ”explains El Mundo, analyzing the context that led to the election this Sunday .

For The Nation of Argentina, “There were no surprises in the Chilean plebiscite, because the victory of the ‘approve’ was taken for granted in all the polls prior to the election. But in Chile’s decision to change a Constitution gestated 40 years ago during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet -and questioned, precisely, for that reason in its legitimacy- strongly influenced a clear desire of the citizens to retake their leading role ”.

“This was reflected in the massive participation of Chileans in the plebiscite, highest since voluntary voting was established in 2012, despite the fact that it was carried out in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, “says the trans-Andean medium.

La Nación points out that President Piñera’s situation “was already uncomfortable before the plebiscite and his little influence during the process was evident. While the opposition anointed him as a kind of symbol of the injustices of the model, the sector of the extreme right considered that the president lacked a strong hand to contain the violence and he was too dialogical with his political counterpart. Without the support of these two sectors, Piñera was left with the more moderate center-right as the sole electoral supporter ”.

“For this reason, the head of state spent several weeks anticipating a scenario of defeat of the ‘rejection’ and quickly began to show signs of harmony with the possibility of facing a constitutional process, something that will hardly give him any popularity and will only serve him so as not to be left out in a process by which a large number of Chileans turned upside down ”, says the chronicle of La Nación.