Chile: Change on a Small Scale

By Marina Menéndez Quintero on July 1, 2021.

The inauguration of the mayors and councilors elected in May initiates the fragmented construction of a new model at the local level, where popular power is forged.

While the expectations of an agitated electoral year are beginning to focus on the November presidential elections, it could be said that Chile is already playing with the trial balloon of a new model of government, and it is doing so on a small scale, in between fifty and a hundred municipalities.

Perhaps the statements of Daniel Jadue, first mayor of the Communist Party to be reelected in La Recoleta, and aspirant to the primaries of a sector of the left in view of the elections that will take place in only four months, may serve to illustrate what is happening.

When asked about the questions made to his local government program, Jadue answered with an explanation that could be very useful for the presidential electoral campaign if, in the primaries, he is the candidate of the sector he represents; “I think it is very good that all the neoliberal economists who used to say that Chile was a model for the whole world, are criticized because they never had the will and do not have it today to solve the problems that this country demands”.

“I would never have expected that the economists and the sectors that have benefited from this model, including the owners of the media, would be happy with a program that intends to put an end to the abuses and privileges of which they have been the main beneficiaries”.

In his words lies the explanation that many already understand well; the adverse results that the right wing had in the elections for governors and mayors in May, constitute the materialization in the ballot boxes of the rejection of the plundering social conditions that originate from economic policies focused only on macro growth, without taking into account the people.

And this has been expressed with a profusion of votes not seen since the times of the Popular Unity and Salvador Allende.

The warning could be seen in the popular demonstrations that shook the country at the end of 2019 and 2020 for various demands that were answered, incidentally, with the same level of viciousness reminiscent of the times of the dictator Augusto Pinochet.

A few months later, leftist or simply progressive mayors and councilors, some of whom participated in the electoral tournament independently, unseated the pro-government Chile Vamos in more than a few localities, in what was considered another defeat for Sebastián Piñera.

The inauguration of these new progressive authorities four days ago has once again turned into news that this election carried fateful omens for the right wing, which has lost localities where it has historically governed, and that is why it is considered representative. It could also be the precursor of what is to come.

Let’s look at the numbers: of the 344 mayoralties that were renewed in the May 15 and 16 elections, the big winners were the independent candidates who won 162 municipalities, which is considered a setback for the traditional parties.

And, if we look at the level of parties, “horizontally”, the count favors the left and what has been called center-left, not because of the number of territories won, but because of the qualitative leap of these victories, since in many of them, long enthroned right-wing groups were replaced.

The Socialist Party won 22 municipalities, the Party for Democracy, 17; the Radical Party, 11; and the Communist and Democratic Revolution, 11 as well.

Although their totals (56) do not surpass the right wing, which obtained a total of 78 communes, the shift in the correlation of forces is ostensible in relation to the previous panorama.

Among the most commented inaugurations of the new leftist mayors are those that traditionally belonged to the other side, such as Ñuñoa, to the northeast of the capital, where the new mayor, Emilia Ríos, recalled: “After 25 years of administration from the same political sign, this administration has changed”, and does so, she said, “in a context in which everything is changing in our country”.

The same happened in Estación Central, also in Santiago, that since Monday is now under the leadership of Felipe Muñoz, an independent supported by the leftist Frente Amplio, who upon taking the oath of office highlighted the fact of being “the first mayor born and raised in this commune”, which is something that also gives the idea that power is democratized.

Another name that is being heard from is that of former student leader Karina Delfino, of the Socialist Party and one more of the young people who started in the social struggle during high school and University, with those mobilizations of 2006 and 2011 that opened the eyes of the country, and who now are emerging as territorial leaders. She took over the mayor’s office of Quinta Normal, putting an end to the administration there of the Christian Democracy.

Added to this is the arrival of Tomás Vodanovic, from Revolución Democrática, to Maipú, also in the capital, replacing the ultra-right wing UDI, an organization that also lost the mayoralty of Viña del Mar to the equally very young Macarena Ripamonti, from RD, who announced that her municipality “puts each and every one of the people at the center”, representing a transforming performance of what has been experienced up to now.

But perhaps the most symbolic swearing in was that of the communist Irací Hassler, because she has done so at the head of the mayor’s office of the central commune of Santiago, replacing the conservative Felipe Alessandri, of Renovación Nacional.

“We are going to build a participatory communal government, with hope and with the people”, announced Irací, who declared herself honored to head what she called “a collective and transforming project arising from our own neighborhoods”.

With this background, the presidential election will arrive seasoned, as never before, by the aroma of that new country for which a good part of the Chilean population, for a long time, has been identifying with, and which is already being cooked down below.

In the face of those who will maneuver to keep everything as it was, many of the constituents who, in parallel, will begin on July 4 in the drafting of a new Magna Carta, will try to stamp there the bases of the new model.

The outlook seems more encouraging than ever for those who suffered through so many years and reject the neoliberal performance of the past. If those who want a new Chile manage to march united, new surprises could be seen in November.

Source: Resumen Latinoamericano