Gabriel Borick has promised to change the presidency of Chile to his model

This content was released on March 11, 2022 – 05:44

11 March 2022 – 05:44

(AFP)

Gabriel Borick was sworn in as Chile’s president this Friday, promising to promote Chile’s ecological, feminist conscience and promote a welfare state that has been a successful neoliberal laboratory and promotes a country capable of reducing the inequalities that nourish its community. .

The former student leader, who has not yet graduated in law from the University of Chile and is a vice president since 2014, will become the 36th youngest president in Chile history.

He will lead a country that closes the cycle of traditional politics after the social upheaval of 2019 and, subsequently, the economic crisis caused by the epidemic.

Borick wants to start a path towards a welfare state in the style of European social democracy.

“It comes to power in a very fragmented political environment, which lacks a parliamentary majority and does not have the opportunity to make very radical reforms in the short term,” said Claudia Hayes. Career in Political Science at the University of Chile.

However, he said, “There is a sense of anti-neoliberal sentiment in the world, which today is viewed with less fear even by the conservative sector, and there is this hope coming from the constitutional process and the impetus to defeat neoliberalism.” Educator.

The Left took office with a crisis of credibility in politics, a 22.5% cut in public spending, a recession in the economy this year, a major irregular displacement and an unresolved historic land conflict between the state and the city of Mapuche.

At the Congress, located in the port of Valparaiso, 150 km from Santiago, there will be a change of command by outgoing Conservative President Sebastian Pinera (2010-2014; 2018-2022).

More than two dozen international guests will be in attendance, including Argentine President Alberto Fernandez, Peru’s Pedro Castillo, Spain’s King Philippe VI and writers Nicaragua’s Giogonda Belle and Chile’s bestseller Isabel Allende. Delegates from the United States where he has lived for more than 30 years.

– Social demand –

It is a government that must respond to social demands for better health, education and leisure, and reduce social inequality.

“Boric has promised dialogue to tackle these problems, and this prognosis for dialogue should see citizens waiting for solutions without tiring themselves out again,” Diego Portals University educator Rodrigo Espinosa told AFP.

Another challenge will be to mobilize support for the final part of the constitutional process, calling for a referendum this year to approve or reject the new constitution, replacing the current Magna Carta derived from the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).

– Generation change –

The young president, who promised that a “feminist” government would be appointed in 14 of the 24 ministries, marked a generational shift in politics, with women of very different professions, profiles and ages, on average 42 years old.

He recalled two alumni leaders who marched in 2011 for free and quality education. He shared a seat in Congress with them: Camila Vallejos (33), her next government spokeswoman and responsible minister Giorgio Jackson (35). Relations with Congress.

There will be six ministers who were born and raised in exile from the Pinochet dictatorship, including Maya Fernandez, the future defense minister and granddaughter of former Socialist President Salvador Allende.

This new faction in power must rule with the split of the parliament and the potential support of the minorities and the Socialist Party of the new official coalition formed by the Broad Front and the Communist Party.

But it would not be enough for him to get a minimum majority in the legislature in support of his plans, such as ambitious tax reform to raise 5% of GDP.

“He will face a hostile Congress,” Espinoza says, adding that “establishing a dialogue to overcome legislative obstacles” will be his “biggest challenge” and he will have the “collective ability to support a welfare state”.

Likewise, it will clash with distrust in the extreme right and left factions over whether it can implement the social changes it promises.