After massive protests, Chile is now trying to restart with Gabriel Boric: the new Chilean president wants to reform the country internally.
As the youngest president in Chile’s history to date, left-wing politician Gabriel Boric has been sworn in as the new president of the South American country. The 36-year-old took his oath of office in Congress in Valparaíso on Friday.
The former student leader prevailed in last year’s election against the German-born right-wing candidate José Antonio Kast. The successor to the right-wing conservative head of state Sebastián Piñera announced that he would improve education and health care and strengthen the rights of women, migrants, indigenous people and homosexuals.
For a long time, Chile was seen as a shining example in a region marked by poverty, violence and political unrest. The country with more than 19 million inhabitants has the highest per capita income in South America. Poverty has been significantly reduced in recent decades. But Chile also suffers from great social inequality. Large parts of the health and education system have been privatized, and more and more people feel left behind.
New constitution is being drafted
Boric wants to bring a breath of fresh air to the La Moneda government palace: he is the first president since Chile’s return to democracy in 1990 not to belong to one of the traditional centre-right and centre-left parties. In addition, for the first time in the country’s history, his cabinet includes more women than men.
After the massive social protests a good two years ago, Chile is in a state of upheaval: a constituent assembly is currently working on a new basic law. The current text dates from the time of the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990). If the new draft constitution is approved in a referendum, Boric could be the president who buries the last remnants of the Pinochet dictatorship.
Source: Stern
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