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The Chilean Convention delivers the final text of the new Constitution

2022-07-04T10:54:02.587Z


The president receives this Monday the Magna Carta that will be plebiscitated on September 4, which declares Chile a social State of law and ends with institutions such as the Senate


After a year of work, the Chilean constitutional convention —composed of 154 members— submits to President Gabriel Boric the proposal for a new Constitution that will be voted on on September 4.

Complying against the clock with the established calendar, the constituent body is dissolved and a period of two months begins in Chile where citizens must take a position before two alternatives: those who approve the text and those who reject it.

The Government, which debuted last March, has made the fate of

Approval

its own , despite the risk that this entails at the beginning of the mandate: according to various polls, the option of

Rejection

it is above – 44.4% against 25%, according to the latest Pulso Ciudadano survey –, although three out of ten Chileans declare themselves undecided.

In any case, the scenario seems open in a referendum that will have a mandatory vote —when in Chile suffrage is voluntary—, so it is unknown where the more than 15 million Chileans summoned to the polls will tip the balance.

Electoral experts indicate that, once again, the cleavage of young and old could define the fate of the new Constitution, as happened in the 2021 presidential second round that measured Boric against the right-wing José Antonio Kast.

On that occasion, young people and women mostly opted for the card of the left-wing Broad Front.

The text presented this Monday is not made at the end of an authoritarian period —as it was when the current Constitution was approved—, but due to the slow deterioration of the legitimacy of democratic institutions.

In the opinion of its defenders, it is the most democratic and inclusive process that Chile has ever had.

These are your keys.

1. The riots as origin

On October 18, 2019, the social outbreak began.

The fuse was lit due to a rise in the Santiago metro fare, with students jumping the subway control barriers, but it led to intense days of protest with great violence and, in parallel, with massive peaceful demonstrations.

Among politicians and social scientists there is still no consensus on the causes of the outbreak, but there was a concept that marked the streets in those days: greater dignity.

It happened in the second right-wing government of Sebastián Piñera, who was on the ropes.

There was a day of such violence, in which military barracks were even attacked, that Chilean democracy was in danger.

It was the context in which practically all the political forces tried to find an institutional solution to the political crisis and negotiated in Parliament an agreement for social peace and a new Constitution, which gave rise to the constituent process.

In Congress, deputy Boric was one of the signatories, although that decision was not shared by his own party and part of the Broad Front forces.

The Communist Party, one of the supports of the current Administration, did not support the agreement.

The demand for a new Constitution, in any case, had been on the table for years in Chilean politics.

The current Magna Carta was drafted in 1980, during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, but both at the end of the military regime and in democracy it underwent important reforms.

The current text, in fact, bears the signature of the socialist Ricardo Lagos, who took out some of the most important authoritarian enclaves in 2005. But already in the 2009 presidential campaign the need for a new text appeared again and in the last government of Michelle Bachelet —between 2014 and 2018— a citizen process was carried out for a proposal for a new Constitution.

The project, however, was presented in the last days of the socialist mandate and the initiative stalled during the Piñera administration.

2. The 2020 plebiscite and the election of conventional

On October 25, 2020, after a postponement due to the pandemic, the plebiscite was finally held to define whether or not Chileans wanted a new Constitution, in which half of the voters participated.

The result was categorical: 78% supported the idea of ​​a new text, with a diverse electorate that included the center-left and even certain sectors of the right.

On that occasion, it was decided, in parallel, the body in charge of drafting the proposal and a similar percentage —79%— was because it was done by a constitutional convention of 155 members entirely elected for that task and not one that was also made up of part of Congress.

A few months later, in mid-May 2021, the citizenry once again went to the polls to elect the 155 conventional voters.

Due to the rules previously negotiated by the political class, it was an election that would elect the same number of men and women, with 17 seats reserved for indigenous people – in Chile there is 13% of the population that is recognized as being of some native people – and a high number of independents, outside the political parties.

The convention was made up mostly of members of the left and of groups that defend certain causes, such as the environmentalist.

The right elected only 37 members, without even reaching a third of the convention.

3. One year to write the new text

On July 4, 2021, exactly one year ago, the constitutional convention began its work and elected the Mapuche academic Elisa Loncon as its first president (she was later replaced, as was the agreement).

The body had a period of nine months extendable to one year to present a proposal for a Constitution, which it has fulfilled, despite the problems.

As it was a space where political parties did not have the same influence as in other instances, such as Congress, the debate was complex, as was the process to reach agreements.

As the right was practically absent, the greatest tensions originated between the same left and center-left groups.

The various episodes that were damaging the confidence of the organ did not help: one of the conventional members of the extinct People's List who faked cancer —the convention almost always had to work with 154 conventional members and not with 155—, another who voted from the shower , insults and accusations between constituents, incense in the headquarters of the Congress in Santiago where the sessions were held, among other incidents.

According to the latest survey by the Center for Public Studies (CEP), "the characteristics of the conventional and their work" is installed as the main reason for those who will reject the proposal.

4. The main characteristics of the text

The definitive text that is presented this Monday has 388 articles and 57 transitory norms, with which it will be —if approved— one of the largest constitutions in the world.

It has 11 chapters.

It proposes a “democratic State, with representative democracy and reinforced with forms of direct democracy that we have never known in the country;

Rule of Law;

social rights, protection of a nature of which we are part;

decentralization of the country”, explained the constituent Agustín Squella, a liberal leftist, who will vote for

Approval

in the plebiscite on September 4.

Together with the proposal for an ecological State, these are the first constitutional constructions that have a direct impact on the feminist movement.

Not only did it achieve the formation of the constitutional body in an equal number of men and women, but also the "parity democracy" that one of its articles carries.

The proposal establishes a new relationship between the native peoples and the Chilean State with the declaration of a plurinational State, which represents a substantial change.

“If the concept of the Chilean nation is destroyed, Chile will end as we have known it since before 1810,” historian Sofía Correa Sutil has criticized.

5. Points of conflict

Although there is a certain consensus regarding the social rights contemplated in the proposals —the detractors point to the large number that is enshrined and the risks of judicialization—, the points that generate the most controversy are, precisely, the groundbreaking ones.

Together with the plurinational State and the indigenous territorial autonomies, the main voices of the

Rejection

point to proposals such as the system of Government: a presidential system attenuated with asymmetric bicameralism that, in practice, implies the disappearance of an institution with 200 years of history, such as the Senate.

Another of the controversial points is related to the Justice Systems, which will replace the Judiciary: "There would be one legal system for part of the population, the indigenous peoples, and another for the rest of the population," criticizes Isidro Solís, who was Minister of Justice in the first government of Michelle Bachelet.

6. The ratification processstart of the campaign

After Monday's ceremony at the Pereira Palace in the Chilean capital, where the convention will deliver the proposed Constitution to the president, the campaign for

Approval

and

Rejection

will begin on Wednesday, July 6 .

On August 5, meanwhile, the television slot will begin.

One and the other will be essential to convince the large number of citizens - around a third, according to different surveys - who remain undecided.

Chilean society is taking a position before the referendum on September 4.

In very general terms, for the

Rejection

is the political right and a part of the center-left sectors —linked above all to the Concertación that governed Chile between 1990 and 2010— who consider that the proposal represents a threat to democracy.

For the

Approval

is Boric's ruling party and those who support him (around 34%, according to the latest Cadem survey), part of the center-left —such as former president Bachelet— and, above all, left-wing groups and young people.

If the proposal presented this Monday is not approved, there is a certain political consensus that the current Constitution must be changed, given the vast majority of Chileans who demonstrated at the polls for the replacement of the current Magna Carta in the plebiscite of entry of October 2020. So far, however, there is no clarity on the path.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-07-04

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