President Piñera used “your charge for personal business“said Deputy Tomás Hirsch when presenting the accusation in the Chamber of Deputies, the first step in the impeachment process that could last for several weeks.
In total, fifteen legislators from all sectors of the center-left, from I approve of Dignity a New Social Pact, signed the presentation for a constitutional indictment against the right-wing president.
The worldwide leak of Pandora Papers showed that Piñera sold his mining company Dominga once he took over La Moneda to a businessman friend. Part of the operation was carried out in a tax haven and was conditional on the company being exempt from certain environmental regulations, something that was decided by its own government.
Three independent deputies, one from the opposition and the other from the government, were drawn to form the commission that will hear the constitutional accusation against President Piñera.
The commission will be made up of Raúl Alarcón (Independent former Humanist Party), the socialist granddaughter of former President Salvador Allende Maya Fernández, Independent Pepe Auth, as well as Paulina Núñez from the center-right Renovación Nacional (RN) and Virginia Troncoso (independent, former Independent Democratic Union -UDI).
Before delivering the document, the parliamentarians made an act to sign the accusation consisting of two chapters – for failing to probity and compromising the honor of the nation– and that it will require 78 votes (absolute majority) to be approved in its substance (if the previous question is invoked, it should be rejected by the majority of those present), “explained the Chilean media.
The next step, once the plenary session of the lower house is informed about the accusation to remove the president, will be to notify Piñera of the action against him within a period of no more than three days.
Then, the ruler will have ten consecutive days – not counting Sundays – to present his defense before the commission, which will have six days to decide whether to initiate the constitutional accusation or not. “With these deadlines, it is projected that the libel would be voted on November 8,” Emol estimated.
The intention of the opposition to dismiss Piñera occurs within the framework of the electoral campaign to elect his successor. Chile will vote in the first round of the presidential elections on November 21 and the ruling party has seen its intention to vote decrease in the hands of the leftist Gabriel Boric and the pinochetista Jose Antonio Kast.
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