MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP via Getty Images
Chilean President Gabriel Boric has ended the institutional role of his companion Irina Karamanos, who is stepping down from her post as First Lady.
INTERNATIONAL – In 2023, Chile will no longer have a First Lady. Irina Karamanos, the companion of Gabriel Boric, who was elected in December 2021, announced that she will give up her institutional role this Saturday, December 31st. From January 1st, there will no longer be a “First Lady’s Cabinet” in the Presidential Palace of La Moneda.
“This is a step that makes us proud because it allows us to change the look we can have of a presidential couple or the stereotypes culturally associated with this role of first lady,” Irina Karamanos told La newspaper Tercera. Traditionally, the First Lady in Chile presides over six social, cultural or educational foundations. Functions now held by personalities appointed by the ministers concerned.
An unprecedented decision
Gabriel Boric had made a promise from his campaign to abolish the role of first lady in the name of feminism. It took a year for the left-wing president to hold it. A delay that brought a lot of criticism to the presidential couple.
Conservatives accused the first lady of being illegitimate as she was not married to the head of state. Some feminists also wanted her to resign, arguing, “If you’re a feminist, you don’t have to be First Lady, you have to do your job as a researcher or whatever.”
“This process does not change the fact that I am both a partner and companion of the President and an activist on the project. I will therefore continue to support my President, but from places other than the Presidential Palace, Irina Karamanos said. Anthropologist and educational researcher Irina Karamanos, 33, is also an activist with the Feminist Front of Boric party. A role that she wants to “strengthen” in her research areas in addition to “professional development”.
Patriarchal state symbols
Will she serve as a role model? In the rest of the world, too, the wives of presidents exercise an influential and representative role. The concept of the “First Lady” in the United States is the origin of this and has been based on the model of the queen consort in monarchies. Voices are being raised questioning it, claiming it is part of the state’s patriarchal symbols.
On the French side, the status of First Lady developed during Emmanuel Macron’s first term in office. When the spouse of the Élysée’s tenant has no official status, a “charter of transparency” has been introduced to define the role of the first lady or first husband.
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