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Within the framework of an activity to formally convene, by decree, the election of the constituent convention of April next year, the President Sebastián Piñera answered two questions to the press on Tuesday. One of them, on his decision to go to the Constitutional Court for the second retirement pension project promoted by the opposition, and another, for the motion that a group of center-left parliamentarians entered, initiative in which they ask to advance the presidential elections.
This last proposal –promoted by Jaime Mulet (FRVS) and Rodrigo González (PPD), and also signed by PR, PS PC and independent parliamentarians– seeks that the presidential elections are held in April 2021. And the idea arose as a reaction to the President’s decision to go to the TC, which was widely questioned in the opposition and by some legislators from Chile Vamos.
“It is necessary to advance the elections, because since the last presidential one, Parliament and the Executive have lost legitimacy and representation. Chilean society, from the moment of the social outbreak and with the result of the plebiscite, has deeply questioned the political institutionality and a profound change of it is required ”, said the second vice president of the House, Rodrigo González.
In this scenario, Piñera dismissed the project and indicated that “in a democracy you have to know how to respect the free and sovereign decision of the people and also the rules of the game of the Republic.” And he added: “In 2017, Chileans freely and democratically elected a President and a Congress for a period of four years (…). In November of next year, we Chileans will have the possibility of electing a new President, a new Congress and, therefore, I ask everyone to respect our democracy and our rule of law ”.
The presentation of the project generated concern in La Moneda. This, as they explain, not because they believe that the initiative can advance in Congress, but because of the signals that are given to the citizens and what is installed before public opinion. In fact, some in Palacio believe that the matter also has an international impact due to the country’s image. it is projected from “political instability”
Thus, to counteract the offensive of that sector of the opposition, the Minister of the Segegob, Jaime Bellolio, according to sources of the ruling party, coordinated this Tuesday with the heads of the bank of Chile. it materialized during the day, when a group of parliamentarians held a press briefing in Congress, in Valparaíso, questioning the initiative and accusing that sector of the opposition of wanting to carry out “a soft coup.”
“A soft coup d’état is a set of non-frontal, non-violent, conspiratorial techniques in order to destabilize a government and cause its downfall”, said the deputy and vice president of RN, Paulina Núñez.
Anyway, in La Moneda they believe that the motion will not advance in its processing, since, they emphasize, there is an opposition division.
In fact, although the initiative had the support of the former presidential flag bearer Marco Enriquez-Ominami, the project raises questions in various sectors of the center-left.
From the DC bench, for example, they assured that they will not support the reform. “What we must do is maintain the constitutional deadlines that the law determines today”said the head of the deputies of that party, Daniel Verdessi. In turn, the senator Guido Girardi (PPD) questioned his peers and maintained that “This government was elected by the majority of Chileans and must finish its mandate; that is what corresponds in a democracy. I am not a supporter of any kind of coup, neither white nor State ”. Also, his peer from the PS, Juan Pablo Letelier, qualified as “unacceptable” the proposal.
However, Mulet dismissed the criticisms that have arisen around the initiative and maintained that “we are doing this approach through the democratic formula ”.
