“It is bread for today, hunger for tomorrow”, as defined by the elected President Gabriel Boric, the Universal Guaranteed Pension (PGU) project presented by the current administration and which ended up being transformed into the first clash between the outgoing and the incoming government .
During the week, the resentments of Boric and his close circle were supported by economists José de Gregorio, Andrea Repetto, Eduardo Engel and Rodrigo Valdés through a letter to The Mercury. And although their arguments were rejected by the ruling party and the palace, arguing that the initiative would seriously contemplate a financing plan, they retorted, accusing that “it also involves using supposed slack that is nothing other than using a fanciful fiscal space that depends on unrealistic projections “, adding that the most appropriate strategy would be to process the PGU in conjunction with the discussion of the contributory pillar in the coming months.
But beyond having raised the cock with the current administration, the incoming government together with those who accompanied it were immersed in a complex dilemma, since one of the pillars of its proposal is precisely to increase the universal basic pension, in this case , to 250 thousand. And although the formulas to guarantee a minimum floor are different, standing on the opposite side of a type of social benefit like this — it is known — carries great costs.
The debate and positioning of both sectors takes place in the middle of the discussion in the command of the President-elect regarding how they intend to work in the future, thinking about the strategy to guarantee a minimum parliamentary floor and thus achieve a minimum traction for support your government program.
In this sense, and with a more or less clear diagnosis, it is that in recent days the signals of the current opposition have changed their position, and if at the beginning of the week it seemed that the project did not have the conditions to move forward, today the The picture is completely different.
During the week it was the DC that was in favor, on Saturday it was the PC’s turn; largest party within Approve Dignity, and then it was the turn of the PPD.
Within hours of voting on the initiative put on the table for this Monday, the party led by Natalia Piergentili, through a statement, announced that they will vote in favor of the government project. “We are going to vote in favor of this initiative tomorrow, because we believe that it is an urgent and necessary measure for the people. However, we share the concern that exists about its financing, since we want it to be permanent, and that as Some economists pointed out, “Do not increase the fiscal imbalance. As a Bank we are available to make all the necessary efforts to find certainty in the financing, and make this initiative go ahead,” said the Head of the PPD Bank, Raúl Soto.
For now, the idea of the rings as a ticket to enter certain spheres of the future administration has left several dissatisfied, while one of the main tasks in which the command of the incoming government works is – precisely – to find a formula that guarantees minimal support for the future administration.
Adding the votes for Approve Dignity and the entire New Social Deal, it reaches 74, which although they exceed the third that the official conglomerate does not guarantee, they do not reach the floor of the simple majority.
