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“I couldn’t take the exam, so I don’t know if I’m a recovered person”, says the ex-finance minister of the Michelle Bachelet government, Nicolás Eyzaguirre (PPD). About a month ago, her stepdaughter contracted Covid-19 and, despite the fact that she had left the country, according to family calculations, the contagion would have occurred in Chile.
His case could justly represent the group of people who, in his opinion, the policy of the government of President Sebastián Piñera would not be aiming at: recognizing those who, being asymptomatic, could be a source of contagion, something that could only be achieved by increasing capacity. testing.
Thus, in this interview, the former minister points out that the Executive is making decisions that he would not recommend, such as “reopening” the market, instead of reinforcing sanitary restrictions.
Former President Ricardo Lagos said that the opposition “has not given the width”, which opened a debate regarding the role of the sector. What do you think?
I see more conflicts within the government than in the opposition. Without going any further, between the Minister of Education and the Minister of Health. I also see conflicts with the mayors of your sign. So, given that in times of pandemic the government is the supreme driver of the country’s activity, I am more concerned that we see a single voice there than the role of the opposition.
But what role should they play?
There is no tension with following the government’s instructions, because that is what all Chileans have to do. There must be a kind of basic civil obedience, because in this we all need to walk the same way, but one can and should have an active role in demanding transparency and proposing alternative measures.
A cover of a national newspaper (The Clinic) published that the opposition has not contributed. Do you share that?
I am not an analyst of the opinions of others. I have seen my friends Rodrigo Valdés, Eduardo Engel, at least the opposition economists, with a super-cooperative attitude. And regarding the management of the pandemic as well, our attitude has been proactive and in no case has it been to try to accuse or point the finger. I have not seen a country paralyzed by destructive opposition.
And that attitude of the economists has it the rest of the opposition, then?
What I have seen is always a cooperative attitude. Yesterday I had an exchange with a young pro-government deputy and I told him that I would have loved that during the Bachelet government the opposition would have been as cooperative as we are.
How have you seen the government deal with the coronavirus?
Let us start by recognizing that this is an extremely difficult subject to handle and, therefore, we must give them the benefit of the doubt. There is no doubt that they have mobilized, they are attending to cases, trying to raise the ICU beds, to have more fans, to increase the number of exams. They are trying to move as smoothly as possible through this heinous pandemic. Now, there are things where they have not been well, but they have made the attempt.
What would those things be?
I feel that they do not have a single reading, which was made clear through, for example, the controversy between Health and Education, regarding the end of classes. In other words, a minister disqualifies what another does frankly! I was in government for ten years and I don’t know what would have happened to me.
And on that, do you think the President has not had the ability to control his hosts?
I don’t know, I’m not in the inner circle at all. One can believe that the Minister of Health, who is undoubtedly someone who knows infectious diseases, tends to have a personality of running with his own colors and, therefore, that which makes him a dynamic man, can also produce tensions with him. other opinions that should also be on the table. But the biggest flaw in driving is that I do not understand what are the criteria through which they are proceeding with the quarantines and with the tests.
Returning to the previous point. Weren’t these problems when you were in government?
I don’t remember any. I was minister of Lagos for six and four years in the second Bachelet government and I did not see differences of opinion of this caliber between ministers come to the surface. It would be unfair to say that this means that they lack governance, because we are not facing a situation like this either, but this controversy is unprecedented.
Do you think, then, that President Bachelet would have done better than Piñera?
That is very difficult to say. I would tend to think that a different policy would have been imposed, which I favor more than that of the current government. But to say we would have done better would be superb on my part.
But what different policy would they have favored?
To exemplify it, I will put two extremes: the policy of Angela Merkel and that of Donald Trump. Merkel has the best indicators in the world in terms of the number of tests she has carried out per inhabitant and the number of recoveries compared to those infected. In Germany at the moment there are two recovered for each infected and in the United States there is one for every ten. Trump’s strategy has been to assume that the number of asymptomatic people is very high, so that the health system would not collapse, therefore, they began to reopen the country. I feel that this government is relatively, without being equal, more towards the Trump line and I would be much closer to Merkel.
Are you saying that with Bachelet they would have had a Merkelian policy and, therefore, more successful?
What I am saying is that with Bachelet we would have had a more Merkelian policy, indeed. Now, when you have such a policy, the initial costs are higher, because you have to have tougher measures of social distancing and quarantine.
And, then, is the new normal similar to that of Trump?
Strictly speaking, the new normality means that it will never be the same as before, but the message is ambiguous, because what many heard is that we are normal again. There is a very complicated play on words and when you put that together with the fact that public officials return, classes resume, the malls open, what people understand is what Trump says: let’s reopen the economy.
The Minister of Finance said that reconciling the economy with health was not a contradiction, but something essential. How do you see that they have handled that?
If we see it in pure terms, quarantine or social distancing, which protects health, is an coma induced by the economy, because obviously there are difficulties in working and producing. There is a tension between the sanitary and the economic, but it is possible to harmonize it. Now, in that harmonization are the two strategies. Merkel’s is to choose the sanitary in the initial stages and then open. Trump’s is to open fast. Where is Chile? I already told.
So would the previous government have had a more successful policy?
He did not run the country, I do not know what would have been determined. I tend to think that, knowing her, that Bachelet would have had a strategy closer to Merkel and I see Piñera more similar to Trump.
What role should the State have in economic matters?
The State must accompany the restriction of freedoms with forms of livelihood, if you do not leave an impossible situation. But I will say something, if it was Minister Briones and he saw that Mañalich was taking a bolder strategy and that a second outbreak could emerge, then he would say “heck, they are going to ask me for money again.” And therefore I would try to be more conservative in what I deliver now. What Minister Briones can do depends on whether Mañalich’s bet is correct or not. I would be quite uncomfortable if I were the finance minister.
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