Santiago – A council dominated by the radical right began yesterday to prepare a new proposal for a Constitution for Chile, after the failure at the polls of a first project that sought to replace the Magna Carta that has been in force since the dictatorship.
Of the 51 members of the Constitutional Council, 50 took office after the resignation of Aldo Sanhueza, from the Republican Party, accused of sexual abuse.
Chile “will do well to close this cycle,” said President Gabriel Boric, who promoted the first draft of the Constitution resulting from the violent social protests that broke out in October 2019 and which was rejected at the polls by 61%, during the ceremony. of the Chileans.
That text proposed radical changes to the political, legislative and judicial system. It consigned a plurinational State, an indigenous justice and reserved seats for the original peoples in bodies of popular representation. In addition, it established the right to abortion and parity in all public service.
But after its failure at the polls, the political forces agreed to a second attempt to replace the Constitution drafted in 1980 during the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990), whose most authoritarian articles have already been eliminated in successive reforms.
In May, Chileans elected a new constituent body, but this time dominated by an ultra-conservative right, among which there are nostalgic for the dictatorship, reluctant to make big changes. Citizens today expect “a collaborative process where the different parties are capable of giving in when necessary and finding common ground in search of the best for Chile,” Boric said in his speech.
Yesterday the Commission of Experts, an entity appointed by Congress, delivered the draft on which the constituents will work for the next five months. The council can approve, modify or propose new articles, with a majority of three fifths (30).
The proposal must be submitted to a plebiscite on December 17. If rejected, the Constitution imposed by the military regime will remain in force.
During the first session, Beatriz Hevia, from the Republican Party (extreme right), was elected president of the Constitutional Council, which with 22 seats largely dominates this body, in contrast to the predominance of the left and independents of the failed first process.
Hevia’s election was possible thanks to the wide victory achieved by the right in the elections on May 7, with a total of 34 of the 51 seats. The left won 16 seats and an indigenous representative was elected.
Upon assuming the presidency of the Council, this 30-year-old lawyer, the daughter of a rancher and of German descent, gave a speech in which she warned about the “integral crisis” that the country is suffering after “the breakdown of family life, the contempt by authority, norms and the rule of law”.
Source: Ambito
