Álvaro Elizalde, the new link between La Moneda and the Chilean Congress, poses for a portrait during an interview in Santiago Cristian Soto Quiroz
Gabriel Boric’s government announced this Wednesday that the General Secretariat of the Presidency, which regulates relations with Congress, is changing its minister. Lawyer Ana Lya Uriarte, a Socialist, was replaced by fellow party member Álvaro Elizalde, also a lawyer, who has served as Senator to date and President of the Senate until last March. The President made the decision after a long sick leave for Uriarte, who has been on leave since March 20 due to ongoing Covid. Last week she contacted Boric to let him know that the illness she is suffering from and is causing her severe exhaustion does not allow her a clear return date and therefore there is no other alternative than her replacement.
“The President of the Republic appreciates his professionalism, dedication and commitment and expresses the certainty that after his recovery he will remain linked to the political project,” reads the statement released by La Moneda that day .
Elizalde’s replacement is explained politically by the Chilean executive’s need to strengthen the path of agreements with Parliament at a time of political tension, when it must reach consensus with a fragmented Congress with which to negotiate key reforms. In the folder is the bulging legislative agenda on questions of public safety, pension reform and the debate about a renewed withdrawal of the pension funds. After the failure of the tax reform in Parliament early last March, which completely hit Iriarte and Finance Minister Mario Marcel, the Boric government is holding talks with the opposition and various sectors to converge positions.
The General Secretariat of the Presidency, Segpres, is one of the most important political branches of the Chilean government. Along with the Ministry of the Interior and the Speaker, it is one of the ministries located in the Palacio de La Moneda. These three state secretariats, together with the Treasury, the Ministry of Women and Labor, form President Boric’s Political Committee, with which the President makes the most complex decisions. Speaking to the President a few days ago, Uriarte said he understood that a Political Committee minister could not be in office at this time, with an intense legislative agenda and, above all, with urgency on security issues.
Very close to former President Michelle Bachelet — she was her chief of staff in her second term and secretary of the environment to the socialist doctor in her first term — Uriarte faced a divided Congress in his seven months at the helm of the Segpres, with 90 of the 155 MPs new since March 2022. In this scenario, as shown in tax processing and negotiations to appoint a national prosecutor, it is extremely difficult to reach agreements and even count on officials’ votes. The arrival of Elizalde is therefore part of this line: with a long political career, he headed the Senate for a year with a management characterized by loyalty to La Moneda de Boric, but in which he developed an ability for dialogue and negotiation with everyone showed sectors, including the opposition.
A member of the Socialist Party since his youth, Elizalde is part of the moderate left that supports the government of Boric, a government led by a new generation of the left, but which over time has had to resort to the cadres of the traditional parties of this political sector. In 2021 he played a key role in bringing part of the former center-left Concertación into the new left-wing government. For Elizalde, the appointment this Wednesday means a return to La Moneda, as he was spokesman for the second Bachelet government. However, after a year in office, the President deposed him in May 2015 in a broad cabinet change. Unlike Uriarte, Elizalde had no particular political affinity with the former President.
The reasons why the parliamentarian left his position in the Senate, where he was a deputy for the Central-Maule region until March 2026, are not apparent: “From a personal point of view it wasn’t a great idea, but from a political point of view it was essential “Socialist Senator José Miguel Insulza said today. Socialist sources report that Elizalde is likely to be replaced in the upper house by current party leader Paulina Vodanovic.
With the arrival of Elizalde, the moderate sector of the left – so-called Democratic Socialism – continues to rally forces within the government. Today in Chile they are talking about the strong duo of Marcel and Interior Minister Carolina Tohá, who will complement Elizalde to form a triumvirate. The three also have historic ties beyond politics, as the new minister was a schoolmate of the interior minister’s brother.
On the Chilean left, however, one important fact is not overlooked. Both Tohá and Elizalde are the two strong names of democratic socialism ahead of La Moneda 2026, although they all publicly consider it distasteful to speak about the succession before a troubled government that has serious political difficulties with an agenda to implement is changing and that he has barely been in power for 13 months.