More State, feminism and environmentalism, the ideas of Gabriel Boric for a “new Chile”

“Build a new Chile more supportive and fair ”is the phrase that the newly elected president has repeated like a mantra Gabriel Boric, a former leftist student leader whose program is based on three pillars: more State, feminism and environmentalism.

At 35 years old, Boric, who heads an alliance between the Broad Front and the Communist Party, became the most voted president of the Chilean democracy after winning with 55.8% support for the far-right José Antonio Kast (44.1%).

His proposals are seen by a part of Chile as a natural response to the demands of the massive protests for equality in 2019. Others, on the contrary, feel that the changes are too drastic and could bring imbalances to what was once one of the most stable countries in Latin America.

But what has the one who will be the most leftist president since the overthrown Salvador Allende (1970-1973) really promised?

TOWARDS A WELL-BEING STATE

The future president, who will succeed Sebastián Piñera on March 11, 2022, is an advocate of moving towards a welfare state that covers certain social rights, the political scientist from the University of Chile María Cristina Escudero explained to Efe.

It seeks to end the privatization of basic services and end the markedly neoliberal model that was inherited from the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) and that led Chile to be the country with the highest per capita income in South America but the most unequal, based on the independent World Inequality Database (WID).

A public health system with a universal contribution (not like the current one, to which only those who are not cared for in the private system contribute) and a pension model that is not managed by current profit-making entities are several of its proposals.

HOW WILL YOU FINANCE THE CHANGES?

In order to finance more public services, Boric proposes to increase collection by 8% of GDP in eight years, something that “generates great distrust in the markets” and that could scare away investment, Francisco Castañeda, director of the Business School, told EFE from the Universidad Mayor.

His plan, which many have called “bucolic”, involves improving tax progressivity, reducing some tax exemptions and increasing taxes to about 1.5% of total taxpayers, who obtain more than 4.5 million pesos. monthly (about $ 5,300).

Broric also seeks to impose a special tax on the super-rich, create green taxes and impose a controversial royalty for the extraction of copper – of which Chile is the world’s leading producer -, an initiative that is already being discussed in Parliament.

These changes seek, according to the president-elect, “a regime similar to that of most OECD countries”, where the average tax collection as a percentage of GDP is 22.9%, compared to 20.7% for Chili.

GREEN FOCUS

Environmentalism has belonged to his roadmap from the beginning: he is a staunch critic of the extractivist model that has prevailed in Chile in recent decades and strongly defends the signing of the Escazú Agreement, the first environmental pact in the region, which is the current one Government refused to subscribe.

One of their great struggles has been to vindicate the water crisis that devastates Chile and that has hundreds of people without running water, partly due to a great drought but also because of the water regime, which is not guaranteed as a human right and is in largely in the hands of large agricultural and livestock companies.

“We hope to be the first environmental government in the history of Chile,” he used to say when he was a candidate.

In his speeches he always mentions his native land, the southern region of Magallanes, and makes constant nods to decentralization.

FEMINISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS

For Valentina Rosas, a political scientist at the Catholic University, Boric has a solid commitment to the feminist movement that is transversally included in its program.

“He is concerned about the labor reintegration of women after the pandemic, promises parity and proposes measures to help women caregivers,” he told Efe.

She also included in her program the support for legal, free and free abortion, a historical demand of the feminist collective in Chile, where the pregnant woman can only be interrupted in three circumstances (fetal non-viability, risk of death or rape).

With regard to the massive protests of the social crisis of 2019, where according to various international organizations the security forces committed serious human rights violations, Boric seeks to reinforce investigations and improve reparation programs for the victims.

One question is the amnesty for the protesters who were detained during those marches, an idea that initially he fervently defended but on which he has recently backed down: “It is not acceptable to think of a pardon for all,” he said in campaigns, with a view to adding support of the electorate of the center.

_________________________________