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The bridges have not been cut and they are still talking to him. But among the senators and opposition party leaders, there is a marked annoyance against the finance minister, whom they blame for the “rigidity” and “inflexibility” -they say- with which he has opposed their demands and proposals for the government to spend more in measures that go to the aid of the people most affected by the economic crisis caused by the pandemic. The conflict has been exacerbated above all with the discussion of the Emergency Family Income bill, where the sector argues that the State still has a margin of resources, one of the topics discussed in an extensive remote conclave that was held last night. .
It was more than three hours (from 19:30 until around 23:00, approximately), which brought together experts such as the former presidents of the Central Bank Roberto Zahler and José de Gregorio; the former finance minister Rodrigo Valdés; economists like Andrea Repetto, Álvaro Díaz and Osvaldo Rosales; senators like Carlos Montes, Álvaro Elizalde, Ximena Rincon, Jorge Pizarro, Ricardo Lagos Weber; party presidents; mayors; the civil engineer Rodrigo Jordán; the president of the Equality Institute, Clarisa Hardy; the former director of the Hogar de Cristo, Benito Baranda; the president of ANEF, José Pérez, and other organisms. In addition to macroeconomics and various other issues, the government’s refusal to increase its contribution to the aforementioned project was chewed up and it was insisted that it is insufficient. And although the figure of Briones did not dominate the entire debate, from there several left annoyed with the Secretary of State.
In the forms, the nerve of the struggle is in the amount and form of the Emergency Family Income. The opposition rejects that it is too lean a contribution to the conditions faced by those who have to debate between quarantines and work, and that it is decreasing. So far, what the government is putting on the table is about $ 65,000 the first month, $ 55,250 the second month, and $ 45,500 the third month. The sector requests that the volume be increased, that it not decrease, and that the range of beneficiaries be greater.
The fight in the Legislative moved the Executive a veto, and Briones has already contested yesterday (Channel 13) and today the questions to increase financing with the argument that “we cannot burn all the cartridges now, this is a story that continues”, that “under the logic that is always insufficient, we are not going to get anywhere”, and that “we are in a moment of trivialization of the debate simply impressive, it is a tendency to dig in that makes it impossible to find ourselves in dialogue”.
That, more words like “caprice” and the summons to return to the opposition seem to be filling patience among the senators of the latter. Among them they argue that they have approved “all” projects to the government under the framework of this crisis, and that they are not asking the Treasury to bleed to death too soon, that there is still cash slack. That the project – they record – demands US $ 800 million, which is equivalent, for example, to less than half of the US $ 2 billion of the emergency fund announced by President Sebastián Piñera for informal workers.
But some of them, too, say they now see a different Briones than they were used to, less dialogue than in recent months, and some even believe that the success of which they accuse the President has infected him.
Several of these legislators, such as Montes, Pizarro and others, continue with a direct line with Briones. But they insist that it is of little use, they assure, because it does not yield a single millimeter. “We have tried to talk to them, but they say this is what there is, not a comma moves, what dialogue is that? It is an imposition. If they think they can make a profit because the President went up a little in the polls, they are wrong, “claimed this morning on T13 Radio the DC senator and president of the Finance Commission.
While some and some say they do not explain the “stubbornness” – as Senator Rincón tells La Tercera PM – of Briones, others emphasize the Sebastián Piñera factor in all this. “All economists argue that there is room for fiscal spending within $ 2 billion. The conclusion is that the minister wants a cock with us, and we believe that it is the President who is behind, that the President is saying this to the minister, ”says Senator Montes.
Senator PS goes further, and recalls that “even with former Minister Felipe Larraín, in the most difficult circumstances, we seek conversations and solutions. We made a serious, well-founded proposal, we discussed it with economists, with experts in public policy, but the government considers it a whim. The minister has exceeded himself in this; We may not be right, but we think we are. ” Plus? Montes believes that “there is also a dimension that has a very ideological component; It is very unfortunate that this is so because it prevents dialogue. ”
“The attitude of Minister Briones is inflexible, he does not hear our positions. This is what Roberto Zahler, José de Gregorio and others on the long list of those who were at our meeting last night think. There is fiscal space. We all have to worry about the public finances, is not only a problem of him no more “, he concludes.
PPD Senator Ricardo Lagos Weber says he sees in him “a rigidity that I find difficult to understand given the efforts that have been made and the many times that we have reached understandings, such as, for example, in tax matters in the midst of the social outbreak.” And he insists that “I find it hard to understand why” he does it.
“Minister Briones has full responsibility for what is happening,” Senator Rincón said. “He is mistakenly saving resources for a higher peak and the problem of not addressing it today is that later it will cost the country much more.” What do you think happened to him? “I don’t know and I don’t understand it. I do not understand the orthodox position the minister. There is a little stubbornness. “
The head of the PS, Álvaro Elizalde accuses that “the opposition has had a constructive attitude to face the crisis. Do not see the same attitude on the part of the government, which refuses to listen and which processes bills in Congress with total inflexibility ”.
Pizarro made another point this morning as well. That “I would not like to tell (Minister Briones) that perhaps he has a whim, of closing at a figure of US $ 800 million, which is not such, it will increase anyway.” And that “he can make a comparison with what he wants, someone said that they have spent less money than in other crises”, but that “the first thing is human lives and people, and then the social issue and the economy.”
Another of those who connected last night and who today came out to argue the criticism was the former president of the Central, Roberto Zahler. He chose to do it in Cooperative Radio -and not delve further later- where he criticized that the Executive’s refusal is due to “A fundamentally ideological issue” This has to do with the reluctance of the Piñera administration to “increase the size of the public sector.”
And he argued that the reasonable “Is to increase the indebtedness” of the Treasury “Now” that there are “extraordinarily low rates”, because “a stronger blow is required in these three months”.
Meanwhile, on the other flank, Minister Briones – who chose, his team said, for not answering these questions – already had a round for the Cencosud Case, where the UDI president came to accuse that “he lacked intellectual rigor” the weekend in The Mercury. But in this scenario, Jacqueline van Rysselberghe decided not to continue her criticism this morning. From Evópoli – where Briones militates – they said that the senator “is alone in these declarations” and that “they do not respond to a majority opinion” in the unionism.
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