Chile begins the campaign for the plebiscite of its new Constitution; when it will be?

Chili The campaign for the September 4 plebiscite for a new Constitution began on Wednesday with veteran center-left leaders inclined to reject it and a “Happy Approval” viralized by “the Mandalorian” Pedro Pascal, a popular Chilean actor in Hollywood.

While posters on the streets outside metro stations supported the option of rejecting the new Constitution, dozens of people demonstrated in favor of approving it: thus began the plebiscite campaign that will define whether a new Fundamental Charter is established to replace the current one inherited from the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).

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“We were given a new Magna Carta which allows us to have new social rights, new labor rights, new rights in health, in housing, in education and in work, five slogans that we fight in the street”, said David Acuña, president of the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT), Chile’s main union.

The campaign also shows a strong presence in the national media of voices that reject a project that they consider “partisan”. They maintain that “it does not arouse consensus” and that it was drawn up by a Constitutional Convention to which they attribute revengeful airs.

Consensus?

The former socialist president Ricardo Lagos (2000-2006) shook the political debate when he released an ambiguous letter without deciding to “Reject” or “Approval”.

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Lagos stressed that neither the current Pinochet Constitution -reformed in democracy- nor the new Magna Carta project summons “a great majority of citizens.”

“Chile deserves a Constitution that arouses consensus and since neither of the two texts that may result from the plebiscite is in a position to achieve it, the political challenge is to continue with the constitutional debate until reaching a Constitution that interprets the majority”Lagos, 84, wrote.

People hold flags of approval of the new Constitution on July 6, 2022 in Santiago, Chile. (JAVIER TORRES / AFP).

While Lagos’s words were featured on the front pages of the newspapers, On social networks, actor Pedro Pascal bit into a copy of the new Constitution and mentioned: “#Apruebo #AprueboFeliz #Chile”.

The images were viralized and celebrated by fans of the series The Mandalorian, from the Star Wars saga.

Rodrigo Espinoza, a political scientist at the Diego Portales University, told AFP that “we are seeing a trench where the elites of the traditional parties are cornering themselves towards ‘Rejection’ and in the world of ‘I Approve’ they are coming out to revive citizen voices such as the world of culture, of social movements, of the Feminist movement, who are basically the ones who are going to raise the ‘I approve’ option”.

As happened in the October 2020 plebiscite, when 78% of the electorate approved the drafting of a new Constitution“I think there will be the ‘I approve‘ more in the hands of the social world than of the political parties in Chile”, affirmed the academic.

“I approve” or “I reject”

The plebisciteof a mandatory nature that will consult more than 15 million voters if they approve or reject the text, emanated from a constituent body made up of 154 conventional elected for the first time in history on a parity basis and with seats reserved for indigenous peoples.

The new Constitution establishes a catalog of social rights according to the demands raised in 2019 during social protests.

“It will once again be the people who will have the last word on their destiny. We are beginning a new stage,” President Gabriel Boric said last Monday.

Politics began to choose sides and try to influence from the traditional political parties, which have been relegated in the last elections in a climate of deep mistrust and discredit.

The right-wing opposition positioned itself with the “Rejection” of the new Constitution, alleging that the text “is bad for Chile” and does not represent the entire country.

The left-wing ruling party supports the “Approve” option, as does the Christian Democrats (center) despite the fact that among its ranks there are dissidents who will vote Rejection.

“I will continue to defend my convictions, which in this case go through voting Rejection. When social rights are promised and mechanisms are established that make them impossible, that is populism”, declared Fuad Chaín, who was a representative of the DC in the Constitutional Convention.

The new Constitution contains 388 articles and 57 temporary application rules. The first article reads: “Chile is a social and democratic state of law. It is multinational, intercultural, regional and ecological”.

The latest polls give advantage to “Rejection”. The firm Criteria showed that two months after the consultation, this option obtained 48%, against 31% for “Approval”, while 22% still do not know what they will vote for.

the pollster Cadem assigns 51% to the “Reject” option, 34% to the “I Approve” option and 15% to the undecided, while TuInfluyes.com grants 46%, 41% and 13% respectively.

Source: Elcomercio