Chile, more democracy and social justice

On March 11, the first year of our Government was fulfilled.

An Executive from a plural coalition, which brings together different political trajectories, and which was supported by 55.8% of the electorate in the second round, in the presidential elections with the largest number of voters in our history.

Today, after one year of government, we reaffirm our commitment: to fulfill the popular mandate to build a just, safe, and supportive Chile.

We assume the Government with a country socially fractured and distrustful of representative institutions, whose maximum recent symptom was the social outbreak of 2019. And we inherited a convalescent society after two years of pandemic, with all its consequences: economic vulnerability, precariousness of life and negative effects on the mental health of the population.

Also, today we live in a more impatient society, which demands rapid change, which is not willing to always adjust to the times and parsimony of politics, and it is to this new society that we have to respond.

Citizens and citizens demand transformations, but also, that these be done by giving certainties and reducing uncertainties.

The north towards which our Government is heading is the one that the Chilean people supported by popular vote, laying the foundations of a welfare state, taking charge of the economic, social and individual insecurities that people face in their daily lives, here and now. .

In our country, the constitutional process to change the Constitution of Augusto Pinochet continues.

On May 7, the 50 constitutional conventions ultimately responsible for drafting the new constitutional text will be fully and democratically elected.

And today a group of experts appointed by Congress is working on a constitutional draft, but it will be, ultimately, the Chileans who will have the last word through an exit plebiscite.

Several issues cross the constitutional debate, but one that has a special centrality is related to establishing a democratic and social State of law, which leaves behind the minimal and subsidiary State that has governed us until now, and that has meant precariousness and abandonment of important sectors. of our society.

In the same direction, our government program has proposed to advance by building a Social Security system that overcomes the failed individual capitalization model (AFP) and significantly increases pensions;

recognize health as a social right guaranteed by the State;

and progress in the creation of a care system that recognizes and contributes with public resources to this invisible task, generally carried out by women without remuneration.

Chile also needs to move towards a new social and tax pact, which provides that basis of justice and reciprocal solidarity that allows everyone to feel part of the same community.

These fundamental, structural changes must be accompanied by quick and efficient management of people's daily emergencies.

That is why my government has made a special effort to combat inflation, and we have begun to break it.

A law against organized crime has recently been approved to take charge of a more complex and violent criminal action.

We promote a special plan for the recovery of public spaces, returning neighborhoods and cities to their inhabitants.

That people live and feel safe seems to us an enabling right for the exercise of other freedoms.

I look optimistically at the future of Chile.

We will soon announce a national lithium policy, which means that the State will assume a leading role in the exploration and exploitation of this non-metallic mining resource, in collaboration with the private sector. This policy is the continuation of a long mining tradition in the country, the one that started with the nitrate, migrated to copper and that today will be accompanied by lithium.

We have the second largest lithium reserve in the world and our task is to become the largest lithium producer on a planetary scale in the medium term.

For the world, our Government represents the irruption of a new generation.

Many of us come from social struggles.

Of new political forces that today are articulated with other historical ones.

Ours is not a generational dispute, since we recognize ourselves in a long history that previous generations gave for making Chile a better, fairer and more democratic society.

We are a new left, but with roots in the history of Chile.

This year in Chile, 50 years of the military coup of 1973 are commemorated. We have defined three concepts that will guide this year of commemoration: Memory, Democracy and Future.

I want to look to the future, but do it with memory, learning from the past.

I want Chile to meet again in a unanimous and transversal condemnation of human rights violations.

No political difference explains or justifies going over the rights and dignity of others.

This year, we have the duty to ratify a commitment: the limit of political action lies in respect for human rights.

Latin America is moving today in the direction of transforming governments.

The conditions to build economic and political integration once again give us an opportunity that we cannot miss.

We can give Latin America its own voice in the world in favor of peace and a fair globalization that respects our sovereignty.

But today in Latin America and in the world there are also forces of intolerance and hatred lurking.

In times of crisis, populism and fascism have historically emerged as an alternative.

Forces that relativize democracy, social rights, the rights of women and sexual diversity, to the cultural heritage of our original peoples.

They tend to dress in false clothing of nationalism and patriotism.

The unity around democratic and civilizing minimums that allows to stop the advance of these forces is a task of the first importance in the world and in our continent, and should summon and unite all democrats beyond right and left.

Chile was not and is not an oasis, as some in my country said a few days before the social outbreak of 2019. New and old injustices cross our paths that we are going to face as a Government.

But Chile is also a solid country, which addresses problems and differences institutionally, with dialogue, with respect for the rule of law, with more democracy and not less.

We have covered a small part of our journey.

We have three years ahead of us.

Defeating daily insecurities, laying the pillars of a welfare state, recovering inclusive economic growth, strengthening our democracy and a culture of human rights are the great challenges that lie ahead.

After the conquest of that horizon, of that better future for Chile, I will deposit all the energy and effort without rest.

Gabriel Boric Font

is president of Chile.