The Chilean opposition considers Boric's Cabinet change "improvised"

The ministers of Gabriel Boric's Cabinet this Tuesday, in La Moneda. Alberto Valdes (EFE)

Chilean politics reacts to the cabinet changes announced this Tuesday by the president, Gabriel Boric.

The landing of well-known figures from the center-left to his government was one of the responses that was expected after the crushing defeat of the

in the plebiscite on the new Constitution of Chile.

"The change of Cabinet is an opportunity to start doing things right, I hope that those who finally take office start to do the trick [the job] and solve the pains of the citizens who are the ones that matter," said Ximena Rincón, senator of the Christian Democratic Party and promoter

in the constitutional plebiscite.

Boric has renewed his Government almost six months after taking office.

Today's photo is a portrait of familiar faces in national politics.

Former officials of Michelle Bachelet and characters who starred in the ex-concertacion ―the coalition of leftist, center-left parties that governed for decades, after the return of democracy―.

The president took a step on Tuesday to meet the demands that were somehow accentuated by the failure of the approval, the option backed by the ruling party.

But he has not been enough to ingratiate himself with all political sectors.

Senator Paulina Núñez, from the National Renewal party, has been one of the first to question the changes announced this Tuesday.

“After Sunday's result we would have expected the president to take a turn towards democratic socialism, even with someone who had demonstrated for the

option .

The minimum that the Government has to do, something of common sense, is to act without improvisation, listening to the citizens and giving a turn, why not, to democratic socialism”, questioned the senator, head of the caucus.

Francisco Chahuán, president of the same party, was along the same lines.

“This level of improvisation becomes very difficult, but very difficult (…) and there is pressure for an agreement before September 11.

I want to say that Renovación Nacional has a commitment to a good and new Constitution and we maintain it, but there cannot be this level of improvisation.

President, stature, temperance, and what happened on Sunday are required here.

Do the necessary self-criticism.

I don't go to La Moneda in the afternoon”, he said.

The controversy of Nicolás Cataldo

The expected announcement of changes in the Government was preceded by a controversy that generated a delay of more than an hour in the act of possession of the new officials.

A statement shared in the morning by Boric's press team informing about the appointment of former student leader and member of the Communist Party Nicolás Cataldo as Undersecretary of the Interior unleashed a controversy that ended up reversing the decision.

After learning of the appointment, members of the opposition and the local newspaper

recalled some messages that Cataldo had written a few years ago in which he harshly criticized the police and accused them of infiltrating the protests, torturing and exceeding their powers.

"If that is true, the government has decided to laugh in the face of the victims of violence," said former Minister of Education Marcela Cubillos.

The appointment in the end did not take place and Manuel Monsalve, who would be replaced by Cataldo and placed in the Presidency's secretary, remained in his position.

The country learned that it would be so when he appeared on screen, alongside President Boric.