Gabriel Boric assumes the presidency of Chile, March 11, 2022 (CC: Government of Chile)
Santiago.— Certain renowned Chilean columnists often say that in the heart of Chile’s idiosyncray there lives a Venezuelan: Andrés Bello. Bello drafted the Chilean Civil Code and was passionately committed to the search for political, social, and existential order. Not a rigidity, but an order grateful of a country’s heritage, which tends to emerge from transformations or ruptures as the compass that allows us to overcome them. Chile is a seismic country that builds its buildings and politics with stability top of mind. There is some truth to the opinion of those columnists, and this first year of Gabriel Boric’s presidency is an excellent example.
In October 2019, Chile experienced one of these ruptures. The search for order to overcome the chaos that reigned in the streets resulted in the political and social consensus agreed to by a wide majority (78%) to draft a new Constitution. On the other hand, since the Chilean right had been unable to explain and manage the fever that had taken hold of the country, the political gain was capitalized to a greater extent by Frente Amplio (or Broad Front in English), a left-wing political coalition formed in 2017 that includes several political parties and social movements inspired by Spain’s political party Podemos. This translated into the presidential candidacy of Gabriel Boric, one of the most recognized Frente Amplio MPs.
During the first round of elections, Boric presented himself as the young revolutionary he was in Congress. However, the results of the first elections were not encouraging for him, nor did signal towards any overly zealous revolutionary convictions. During the second round, he presented himself as a calmer, more mature, and dialoguing man. Respectful of institutions, but yearning for change. The Chilean people wanted to believe him – or ruled out the adversary – and gave him their majority vote.
The Constitution: A failed trump card
Boric took over the country’s leadership in March 2022, in the midst of the constitutional overhaul. His government had pinned its hopes on the modified text, which had the country’s revolutionary October protests as its face. In fact, he explicitly stated that program reforms could not be pushed without the new Constitution. Thus, the president’s first serious mistake was linking his government to that Constitution proposal.
It turned out that the elected committee tasked with writing it, still drunk on the incendiary adrenaline of 2019, drafted a text that aimed to rebuild the country from its political, legal, and economic foundations. It diluted the Senate, put the separation of powers in serious jeopardy, decreed that Chile was a plurinational country according to its ethnic plurality, affected parents’ rights as primary educators and their freedom to choose their children’s education system, enshrined access to abortion as a constitutional right, and made citizens’ rights to their pension funds uncertain. On top of that, the committee filled its sessions with performances that included children’s costumes, renditions of the national anthem and painted bodies.
The president’s first serious mistake was tying his government to the new Constitution
For many people, instead of resolving any conflict, the new Constitution introduced many problems that Chile had managed to evade until then. Polls indicated the growing discontent and disappointment people felt regarding the work of the constitutional delegates, but they ignored the red flags. In their minds, the polls were manipulated by powerful groups. They were sure that people would fully identify with their proposals. Additionally, the novelty of a feminist, indigenous, and progressive Constitution had the blessing of international organizations. What could go wrong?
But the calculations of a self-absorbed and impassioned progressive left couldn’t have been more wrong. On September 4, 2022, when Boric had been in office for seven months, the same Chilean people who had overwhelmingly approved the idea of drafting a new constitution rejected the proposal at the polls with 62% of the vote, in the highest turnout in the country’s history.
The government’s initial thesis was that this result was due to a disinformation campaign by the media, although it also hinted that, in their minds, Chileans were not asufficiently evolved enough to appreciate the project’s benefits. Logically, this subtle contempt for the people created another problem. But, apart from being offensive, the government’s explanation was incapable of getting at the heart of the matter: the country, although longing for significant changes to solve social problems, was not willing to leap into the void of their fundamental overhaul.
In search of public order and economic stability
Without the support of the new constitution under his arm, Boric was forced to start governing from a presidential seat that suddenly became extremely uncomfortable. The rejection of the new constitution also meant the rejection of his government program and its conditions, and consequently he found himself without a program at all. To make matters worse, he had to start dealing with two major problems that he himself had contributed to during his days as a disheveled, semi-shaved, tattooed-touting congressman: public order and economic stability, the new central concerns of the Chilean people.
October 2019 brought with it serious shows of violence, including the synchronized burning of 70 metro stations, churches and commercial premises. As these criminal acts intertwined with legitimate peaceful social protests, a significant part of the left’s narrative was considered acceptable, and the violence as necessary to make the protests visible. The law enforcement was deemed essentially repressive of the people, defenders of the dominant elites. Gabriel Boric himself, then a congressman, confronted a group of soldiers in front of the cameras. “They’re carrying weapons of war!” he shouted indignantly. For him, as for his political comrades, state agents were only allowed to use dialogue, never weapons.
But this subtle endorsement of violence came at a high cost. Once in the presidency, Boric had to face the increase in the number and severity of crimes. It was no longer about protests, but about a complex network that includes terrorism in the south of the country, the new presence of drug traffickers, and uncontrolled migration. Thus, the priorities of the people gradually focused on demands for security. Aware of this, the president began to respond to citizen anxiety in his speeches, but was seen as a traitor by his political base.
They then demanded old campaign promises to be met, which now became politically very delicate: the release of some of the detained during the violent October 2019 protests. The police advised against it: they were common criminals with extensive criminal records. Despite this, Boric, under pressure, agreed and 13prisoners were pardoned, a second serious mistake that cost him the trust of the country. While the police, vindicated in the eyes of the people, mourn lost officers killed by criminals, the president appears at funerals, embraces the families of the deceased amid speeches of support, and promises to stop crime through laws against organized crime. He even admits that a reflection on that past that now haunts him is necessary; but he is no longer credible.
Controlling crime and fiscal balance, which had not been a concern of the congressman, have become urgent for him as the president. On the other hand, Chile is facing an inflation-related scenario that it has not seen in decades. Although several Western countries are also experiencing severe price increases, the Chilean situation has its peculiarities. During the pandemic, bills were passed which allowed people to withdraw their pension funds in advance. The measure has had serious pension and capital market consequences, and the rapid liquidity exacerbated inflation, something economists has warned would happen. The then-Congressman Boric voted in favor of the initiative, and now he not only has to account for that vote, but also must attempt to stop it from happening again.
“A new Boric?”
Given the current situation, the government finds itself in the impossible situation of having to “ally with the right” to respond to the people’s demands, as law and order and the economy are strengths of the opposition. Controlling crime and achieving fiscal balance, which were not concerns of the congressman, are now top of mind for the president. On the other hand, the reforms that align him with his original party have Little future, as they don’t count on the support of the parliamentary majority.
All of this has given rise to a reputational crisis for Boric. In one year, he went from being a rockstar to a simple president with low approval ratings, who instead of cheers and gifts, receives insults. It is not surprising: he tied his own fate to the new Constitution, and has been deeply inconsistent in his words and actions. Because who is Boric? Is he the revolutionary former congressman? Or has he truly taken a turn towards deeper sensibility, determined to govern to guide the country back to stability? We still aren’t sure. We do know, however, who the Chileans are: people who rebuild after earthquakes, but with their own materials and blueprints, made for their land, to ensure stability. If Boric learns to read into what Andrés Bello said of the idiosyncrasies of the people he governs, he will have a greater chance of success than he has had so far.
Translated from Spanish by Lucia K. Maher