The Constitution is put to the test in Chile

* The author is part of the community of readers of La Vanguardia.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
12 December 2023 Tuesday 15:32
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The Constitution is put to the test in Chile

* The author is part of the community of readers of La Vanguardia

Just days before the second exit plebiscite to vote for or against the new constitutional proposal in Chile, although in both cases it is a historic defeat for those of us who believed in the construction of a different country, what we are risking this time is the strengthening or not of the extreme right in the country.

Hence, this new process of drafting a new constitution, unlike the previous one, has been explicitly used as a means by the traditional right and part of the extreme right to project the presidential candidacy of José Antonio Kast for 2025, who has no principles when it comes to supporting a constitutional change that he never wanted before.

For this reason, the content of this constitution and its subsequent implementation matters little to this sector, as long as it serves to make them the government in the next period, thus presidentializing a discussion about those who are for or against President Gabriel Boric. trying to install the idea that the latter would supposedly be the head of the opposition campaign.

However, this time it will not be so easy for them to install these types of lies, as happened in 2022, since the fact that they were the ones who controlled the Constitutional Council this time and that they passed the machine to the minority cannot be hidden. of leftist parties that was present in that body in charge of writing the new Magna Carta.

For this reason, more than a plebiscite on the figure of Gabriel Boric, it is actually a plebiscite on José Antonio Kast, who is the one who has assumed the leadership of a sector that seeks in any way to appear victorious, without seeing that they are doing a sad spectacle in front of the country, by seeking something that never interested them, such as leaving Pinochet's constitution behind.

Consequently, what is at stake on December 17 is no longer the possibility of a more just and democratic country, as happened last year, but rather voting for or against opportunists who have instrumentalized this process to deepen neoliberalism and thus increase the privileges of an elite that has always imposed institutions that protect it.

This added to the fact that the discomfort and fatigue of the vast majority of Chileans with the constitutional does not help those "in favor", but rather those "against", since the constituent moment was closed for different reasons, being the From now on, a true farce, which will hardly be able to deceive those who are going to vote next Sunday on a mandatory basis.

Having said the above, what will happen the day after the plebiscite, in the case of winning the "against", which is quite probable, does not give us anything to celebrate, it only gives us a moment to reflect on what happened in Chile to close this constituent process in such a bad way and with so much hopelessness.

For this reason, it will undoubtedly be difficult to accept the end of the cycle in Chile and the inability we had to give a political response to so much anger and frustration accumulated for decades in the country, leaving in the history of how we farro the possibility of giving horizons. collective and trust in people that things could be better.

However, although a cycle will end, it will not be the end of Chile's history, as some would like, since politics in a broad sense will continue.

In short, those of us who truly love Chile, with all its plurality, will continue to fight to build a society where everyone fits.