Sao Paulo
The people of Chile return to the polls this Sunday (17) to try once again to bury the most emblematic legacy of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship the constitution promulgated in 1980, when the country was under a violent regime. Ironically, however, experts say that the text examined consolidates the liberal project of the current Charter.
After the rejection of a constitutional proposal in September 2022, when 62% of the population rejected the document drawn up by the Left, the country plunged into uncertainty in which it remains. Until last month, none of the polls conducted by the main Chilean research institutes indicated support for the text, although this option was on the rise.
In a referendum where attendance is mandatory, there was still a significant percentage of undecided voters: 16% of people did not know how they would vote in the last week of November, according to a survey by Chilean research firm Cadem. It is impossible to say whether the growth of the group's sympathy for the text has continued since then, since dissemination of the research results is prohibited in the fifteen days before the election.
By comparison, the text put to the test last year was written by a majority of leftwing independent lawmakers, with gender parity and representation of indigenous peoples. Had it passed, it would have transformed Chile into a plurinational state, guaranteed the right to abortion and considered water an “inadequate” good.
The bold proposal was a consequence of the “social outbreak,” as the 2019 protests came to be known, which, in contrast to the letter from the economically liberal Pinochet regime, called for improvements in public pensions, healthcare and housing.
“This process did not take into account that there was a strong right wing in the Chilean population and that it overshadowed traditional parties, including the centerleft parties,” says Javiera ArceRiffo, political scientist and professor at the Chair of Women and Social Policy at PUC Chile. “They didn’t understand what politics entailed. It’s a constant negotiation process.”
From the massive demonstrations in 2019 to the vote on the first text, the political pendulum of society began to swing back to the right, and in May this year the vote in the Constitutional Council gave victory to the ultraright Republican Party, which won 44% of the seats. The body was responsible for amending the current constitutional proposal, which was prepared by a committee of experts.
If the group responsible for the 2022 document was further to the left than the majority of Chileans, the Constitutional Council does not appear to represent society either. The party of former presidential candidate José Antonio Kast, who won almost half of the seats in the Constitutional Council, occupies only 8.4% of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies.
The result was a document that was the opposite of the letter written a year ago.
“It is a text that radicalizes the ideas of Jaime Guzmán,” says ArceRiffo, quoting one of the ideologues of the 20th century dictatorship. “It does not create a social and democratic constitutional state, it does not guarantee fundamental rights or an agenda of economic redistribution and represents a threat to certain women’s rights.”
For more progressive sectors, the adoption of the proposal would be the culmination of the 2019 protests, even if it replaces the constitution promulgated under Pinochet. This is because some of the most authoritarian aspects of the current charter were relaxed in the 2000s under leftwing governments such as Ricardo Lagos and Michelle Bachelet, who managed to implement reforms to boost social services provided by the state.
In turn, the text prepared this year does not change the private pension system in Chile, one of the main demands of protesters in 2019, nor does it eliminate the leading role of private healthcare in the country. Additionally, critics say, it opens a loophole to restrict access to abortion and complicate the procedure through conscientious objection a person's right to refuse professional practices that contradict their beliefs.
This mechanism is missing in the current constitution and imports debates typical of the United States to Chile, according to Simón Escoffier, doctor of sociology at Oxford University and professor at PUC Chile.
“Conscientious objection is kept very general in the text. Any person, institution or company can invoke conscientious objection to defy a law, and that makes the norms very easy to interpret,” says the researcher. “If the proposal is adopted, we would have several debates about whether an institution can, for example, refuse to employ homosexuals.”
Escoffier makes the reservation that the text is in some aspects more modern and innovative, such as the mention of climate change although it does not oblige the state to take clear measures to combat the effects of global warming. “The problem is that it contains a lot of controversial and ideological elements,” he says.
| Current constitution | Constitutional proposal |
|---|---|
| Chile is a Democratic Republic. | The state of Chile is Social and democratic lawrecognizes fundamental rights and freedoms as well as constitutional obligations and promotes the progressive development of social rights, subject to the principle of fiscal responsibility and through public and private institutions. |
| It is the primary duty of the state to ensure the implementation of health measures. regardless of whether they are provided by public or private institutions, in the form and under the conditions established by law, which may establish compulsory contributions. Every person will have the right to choose the healthcare system they want, whether public or private. | It is the primary duty of the state to ensure the implementation of health measures. by state and private institutions, in the form and under the conditions established by law, which may establish compulsory contributions. Every person will have the right to choose the healthcare system they want, whether public or private. |
| The law protects life from that still has to be born. | The law protects life In WHO is about to give birth. |
| The constitution guarantees this to all people (…). Freedom of consciencethe manifestation of all beliefs and the free practice of all cults that do not contradict morals, good customs or public order. | The constitution guarantees all people (…) the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. (…) This also includes the Conscientious objectionwhich is exercised in accordance with the law. |
| Not worth mentioning. | The state will implement remedial and adaptive measures in a timely, rational and fair manner, taking into account the situation Effects of climate change. It will also promote international cooperation to achieve these goals. |
The rejection of the project this Sunday would be a victory for Chile's president, the leftwing Gabriel Boric, even if the government has no direct influence on the drafting of the constitution. Boric has been on the country's public stage since the 2011 student protests and was one of those who pressured thenrightwing leader Sebastián Piñera to begin the constitutional process in 2019.
If passed, Cadem said it would be another obstacle for a president who has a disapproval rate of more than 60%. “It would be the end of government,” says researcher ArceRiffo. “The Constitution would have to be signed by the president who promised to bury neoliberalism.”