Axel Kaiser: “In Chile the elite disconnected from the reality of the majority”

The overwhelming victory of Republican Party in the choice of Constitutional Council It was not a surprise, not so much for the leftist government of gabriel boricbut for the followers of Jose Antonio Kastleader of the Chilean conservative right. axel kaiserone of the most publicized Chilean liberal figures, author of various books on the subject, offers a reading on these results.

— How to assume the results of last Sunday?

This is a beating given from the right to the center right but, above all, to the center left, which was left with no representative, and to the left of gabriel boric, which removed a minority that does not allow it to even block the proposal for a Constitution made by the right. They are going to make a lot of noise, they are going to try to sabotage it and it is obvious that the entire left is going to vote against the new Constitution.

LOOK: The right won in the Constitutional Council of Chile: What are they expected to achieve and what effect will it have on the Boric government

— How is it understood that, so soon after the massive protests that demanded changes to the Constitution, we have this scenario?

For the Republicans to have obtained that level of votes, there had to be a very important change in the climate of opinion. The axis of the debate had to be shifted towards ideas on economic freedom, public order and security, migration control. A very active job was done, even before the figure of Jose Antonio Kast. They wanted to make a basically socialist country; So that mobilized a lot of people, from the center-left to the center-right and the right, and with that we achieved rejection. What happened last Sunday is that, finally, the leftist revolution in Chile was definitively suffocated, the doors were now completely closed, at least for a long time.

José Antonio Kast, leader of the Republican Party, leads the debate in Chile. (Photo: EFE).

— President Boric, assuming defeat, asked the Republicans “not to make the same mistakes” as those made by the left. That is, not to polarize the plan for a new Magna Carta. Does the right understand that there is that risk?

He is saying it for a tactical matter, because they are never going to accept a Constitution that comes out of there. In a somewhat awkward position, because they are going to be between the constitution controlled by the people of José Antonio Kast and what they consider to be the Constitution of Pinochet, which is the one that is in force today. They’re going to boycott this instance, but they’re pretending they’re going to rise to the challenge.

— The big losers are, in reality, the center-right and the center-left. Are we living the end of centrism in Latin America?

What is the problem with centrism? He lacks his own ideas. Centrism, by definition, is the middle position between two extremes. The center has to move because it does not have specific weight, it does not have its own principles that are clear and can be defended. So in Chile, cultural hegemony, that is, the set of ideas that predominate in public debate, shifted far to the left and the entire center shifted to the left. And since the entire center moved to the left, the entire right or center-right in Chile, plus the center-left, moved towards the radical left, which controlled the debate. So they left a gigantic space to the right and that is where the Republican Party and José Antonio Kast come in. They emerge as a result of the center-right’s abandonment of principles, of ideas that are traditional in the sector.

— With the end of the center there is another problem: the populism of both sides. Gloria Álvarez, a Guatemalan liberal figure, said: “Freedom is always the most sacrificed because the left has mutilated it in economic matters, and the right has mutilated it in terms of individual liberties.” Do you agree with her?

Historically, one could say that conservatism is more associated with the right, of course, but not only with the right, mind you. But in the current scenario, I don’t see that the conservative right has crippled individual liberties in any significant way. A stricter abortion restriction could be part of the democratic debate, but that is not limiting individual liberties, because even within the liberal world there are people who oppose abortion. It is a more complex discussion. Citizens who voted Republican now did not vote because they care too much about gay marriage; She voted because she wants them not to be murdered in the streets, for drug trafficking not to take over the neighborhoods where she lives, and because she wants a job.

Chilean President Gabriel Boric called on his right-wing rivals “not to make the same mistakes” as in the previous constituent process. (Photo: AFP).

— The 2019 protests were carried out by young people. Who has now voted for Kast?

They all voted, but where he got the most support was among the poorest people in Chile and who are the ones who obviously live with the ravages of drug trafficking, delinquency, criminality, and uncontrolled immigration. And the government candidates on the left drew more support from the more affluent sectors. In Chile, the elite, both the center-right and the center-left, disconnected from the reality of the majority.

— Why does liberalism only seem to want to fight the cultural battle in recent years, and with young people?

They were too comfortable, too used to making money in countries that had already transitioned to democracy and had a functioning economic system, like Peru and Chile a couple of decades ago. They felt that everything was resolved. Giving this fight involves costs; before they did not have the energy, the intellectual clarity. They let cultural hegemony be captured by the left. The change that is being seen has a lot to do with the emergence of new figures.

Source: Elcomercio