| Left-winger Gabriel Boric will on Friday assume office in Chile, promising the most radical presidential agenda since the country’s return to democracy in 1990.mining to finance free education and healthcare for all, shake up the country’s private superannuation and health insurance industries, close tax loopholes to corporations and the rich, mandate a liveable minimum wage and put the rights of women and indigenous nations at the centre of a social and judicial revamp.
However, many, including Chile’s powerful Mining Council, believe the Convention’s more radical proposals will fail to garner the two-thirds majority needed at its plenary to take them to the referendum stage. Others say much of the new draft will prove unworkable as legislation, so rendered moot.Analysts, however, say private sector property rights, including mining and water concessions, are likely to be weakened in the constitutional overhaul.
Although heavy with relatively inexperienced Millennials – among them four Communist Party delegates – Mr Boric’s 24-member cabinet also includes older hands in key portfolios such as health, energy, social security, justice, public works and housing. Women outnumber men in the presidential team for the first time in Chilean history.
More than 30 people were killed and hundreds injured during months of upheaval, with protesters and vandals torching Santiago’s underground rail system, looting shops, blocking roads and causing property damage across Santiago. High-profile cases of pricing collusion between big family-controlled retailers helped fans the flames of dissent, while a middle class once proud of its world-leading copper mines and the fiscal stability they brought began to feel short-changed by privatised health and education.The 2019 social uprising brought together three distinct groups, says Gonzalo Martner, a veteran centre-left politician, academic, author and adviser to Mr Boric’s presidential campaign.
But even Boric’s natural supporters admit he and his team lack experience and a cohesive vision for the country and its place in the world. Strategic miscalculation by the traditional centre-right and centre-left parties had made Boric an “almost reluctant candidate” during last year’s primary selection contests, pollster Marta Lagos says.Advertisement