Santiago de Chile, March 9. Chilean President Gabriel Boric became one of the world’s youngest leaders on March 11, 2022 and arrived at La Moneda Palace with an ambitious agenda of change and high expectations, but the honeymoon didn’t last long. .
A year later, the 37-year-old former student leader enjoys little approval in Chile, has still not been able to carry out any of his signature reforms and is repeatedly forced to face controversies or conflicts, or because of errors on his part. team or by an opposition that does not give a truce.
“It was not a good year. In the polls he was in free fall. He spent most of the year below 30% approval,” Kenneth Bunker, analyst at EFE, told EFE. Politico Tech Global and director of pollster Tresquintos.
“THEY DON’T WANT CHANGES”
The latest blow was received on Wednesday, just when it looked like it was starting to pick up again after successfully handling the deadly fires that slammed the south in February.
The Chamber of Deputies narrowly rejected its tax reform, tarnishing the commemoration of Women’s Day, in which the government intended to strengthen its feminist vocation.
“This is good news for those who evade taxes with impunity and shame,” Boric said, while lamenting that “there is an industry that is trying to make sure things don’t change. “.
The reform, with which he aimed to reap 3.6% of GDP in four years and which had the backing of the OECD, is essential to finance the government’s social program and its rejection especially shakes Boric’s key man: Treasury Minister Mario Marcel.
“Things will get even more difficult if the opposition and other opportunist parties continue with the short-sightedness that we saw in the vote on tax reform,” Julieta Suárez Cao, from the Catholic University of Chile, told EFE.
For the expert, the “seat” of the opposition grew after the September plebiscite, when he lost Boric’s option and 62% of Chileans rejected the proposal for a new Constitution: “The referendum left him with a lot less symbolic power. Then it became harder to come back on schedule.”
“The biggest mistake of the year is to have tied the government so directly to the ‘I approve’ option in the plebiscite,” said Mireya Davila of the University of Chile.
Rodrigo Pérez de Arce, of the Instituto de Estudios de la Sociedad (IES), is more critical and considers that the tax reform vote “is not a triumph of the right, which did not have a sufficient majority , but a self-inflicted defeat.” .
“The government had to row above all against its own mistakes. Let us recall that shortly after coming to power, the former Minister of the Interior Izkia Siches went to the Mapuche community of Temucuicui and was fired on it”, underlined Pérez de Arce about a criticized episode that was linked to the inexperience of the government.
MORE APPROVAL
The parliamentary defeat further fuels rumors of a ministerial change to seek a new balance between the two ruling coalitions: I Approve Dignity (left) and Socialismo Democrático (centre-left).
Some experts point to the coexistence between these two blocks, which represent very different styles and trajectories, as one of Boric’s big problems.
“Having to walk on eggshells to avoid angering anyone is a problem. There may not be a solution and coalitions where there are extremes just aren’t functional,” Bunker said, who recalled that Boric’s worst moment was last January, when he pardoned prisoners held for crimes committed during the 2019 protests.
“People have left behind the social epidemic and are much more concerned right now about the economy, migration or the security crisis,” Bunker added.
Despite the complicated internal scenario, Boric continues to accumulate political capital abroad, above all thanks to his defense of human rights in multilateral forums and his forceful condemnation of Venezuela or Nicaragua, a position that estranged from other progressive regional leaders.
“There were milestones that break with a few years in which Chile moved away from the multilateral path that had characterized it,” Shirley Götz, from the Alberto Hurtado University, told EFE, who highlighted in this sense the signing of the Escazú Agreement. , the first environmental pact in Latin America.
For Bunker, all is not lost: “Boric has a lot going for him, he only lost time, but not the opportunity to do things right, it will depend on what he learns from its errors and its ability to correct them”. .”
Maria M. Wall