President Boric's unconventional vacation in Chile

The president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, rides a bicycle during his vacation.gabrielboric (RR.SS.)

Gabriel Boric's first vacation as president of Chile has not fit the traditional script.

The president resumed his days off on Monday after interrupting them in the first week of February due to the wave of forest fires in the south-central area of ​​the country that has left 26 dead and 440,000 hectares consumed.

From the Government Palace they have clarified that Boric will continue to remotely monitor the emergency and receive reports from the ministers deployed on the ground.

It is expected that he will resume his presidential activities as normal as of February 27, but the Government does not rule out that he advance the date in case of an emergency.

Boric's original plan was to rest the first two weeks of February, in anticipation of completing his first year in office on March 11.

The holidays caught him with very high disapproval rates (70%, according to the Cadem survey; 61%, according to the Center for Public Studies), several open crises -pardons, the Foreign Ministry audio leak, criticism of Peru- and in the midst of the pressures of the ruling party to make a change of Cabinet.

With this scenario on his back, the president took a commercial plane on February 2 with his partner, Irina Karamanos, bound for Chilean Patagonia.

On the flight, he took photos with some followers and chatted with the passengers.

The images that reinforced his close figure and without fuss circulated quickly through social networks.

They were joined by others of the president buying in a supermarket in Coyhaique, in the Aysén Region, about 1,400 kilometers south of Santiago.

A photograph shared by users of social networks in which Gabriel Boric is seen boarding a commercial plane, during the holidays that he had to interrupt.RR SS

When he had only been in the extreme south for a couple of days, the deadliest wave of forest fires in the last decade broke out in Chile.

The president interrupted the vacations in which he had planned to visit his family in Punta Arenas and then go to a beach on the central coast to lead the response to the emergency.

Boric deployed several of his ministers on the ground and went to the areas most affected by the tragedy in the Biobío, Ñuble and La Araucanía regions (located 400, 500 and 700 kilometers south of Santiago, respectively).

In all his visits he was seen talking and consoling the victims.

In the Cadem survey published this Sunday, the approval of the president reaches 30 points (an increase of three points compared to the first week of February) and 64% disapprove.

Meanwhile, the approval of the Government's management of fires rose 10 points in one week, to 47%, and disapproval fell 15, to 46%.

With the emergency "contained, but not overcome", the president has resumed his rest in "hybrid" mode for a week.

Unlike the initially planned tour, Boric will stay at his home located in the central Yungay neighborhood, in the capital.

On Sunday afternoon, he shared images of a bike ride through the city on his social networks.

“Santiago has its beautiful things in February.

I recommend Yungay, go to the O'Higgins Park, Huemul neighborhood and walk through San Miguel, ”he wrote.

From La Moneda they assured

that, despite the payroll, the president "in any case will be monitoring the emergency as a result of the forest fires and receiving reports through the liaison ministers."

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