The ruling party managed to avoid the catastrophe. After intense negotiations, the government alliance managed to secure the presidency of the Chamber of Deputies and Deputies, thus preventing the opposition from taking over the front, after the forced decision of the Communist Party (PC) to lower the candidacy of Karol Cariola . Finally, the chosen one was his former spokesman partner in the failed Approval campaign, the liberal Vlado Mirosevic, delivering a new sign of empowerment to a Democratic Socialism that has held various positions of power since the exit plebiscite, despite the attempt to La Moneda for delivering a seal of unity between both coalitions around its reform program, as reaffirmed in the conclave this Sunday in Cerro Castillo, Viña del Mar.
In short, there were four votes that distanced Mirosevic (77 votes) from his contender, Miguel Ángel Calisto (73 votes), allowing the ruling parliamentarian to reach the head of the Corporation in the second instance, because he failed to add the required vote to win in the first round, since he needed the support of 78 deputies. Decisive for the triumph of the ruling party was the split vote between the PDG and the DC benches, which did not achieve the necessary agreement to call a new administrative agreement, considering that at the last minute the candidacy of Víctor Pino (PDG) –which did not generate consensus – was replaced by that of Calisto, who had the support of the right, except for some RN parliamentarians.
Accompanying Mirosevic on the Chamber’s board of directors will be Carlos Bianchi (independent), as first vice president, and Catalina Pérez (RD), as second vice president. It should be remembered that, as agreed in the administrative agreement signed at the beginning of this legislative period, this presidency will exercise its functions for eight months, and then give way to a new table, possibly made up of representatives of the benches that are part of said agreement. administrative. However, as occurred in Monday’s vote, the political scenario could eventually change and give rise to new pacts that put the ruling party’s will at risk.
This is a result that the Government assumes as a triumph, since they ensure the permanence of the governability agreement signed last March, while maintaining the distribution design of the presidencies of the different commissions, which could, however, suffer some changes in the next few days. This, due to the uncertainty about whether the PDG – divided in the vote this Monday and with an ambiguous position between the ruling party and the right – will maintain the quotas negotiated in March and that correspond to the presidency of some commissions.
In this regard, and although there are critical voices regarding a possible reincorporation of said sector into the administrative pact of the Chamber, the government coalitions understand that they will need all the possible support to carry out their emblematic projects: the tax and system reforms. of pensions. This could be a determining factor in future negotiations with the benches that at some point endangered the conclusion of the agreement, both the PDG and the DC.
Regarding the result for La Moneda, avoiding attributing it as a personal achievement of her management, the minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency (Segpres), Ana Lya Uriarte, celebrated the vote this Monday and preferred not to enter into conflict with some voices that opposition that suffered strong pressure in the last stretch of the negotiation. “There are parties in our government that have made great sacrifices to enable this process that today culminates successfully with the presidency of deputy Mirosevic (…). I would prefer to leave aside all those expressions that come from the defeated sector, so as not to contaminate such a positive day for the ruling party,” emphasized Minister Uriarte.
In addition, and regarding the tone that the conversations with the bench of the currently fragmented People’s Party will have, the new vice president of the Corporation, Carlos Bianchi, stated that “I think that the PDG has to speak for the PDG. We are going to speak from our perspective, and the PDG and other political actors will have to tell the country what perspective they have. We are not only open to receiving the PDG, our obligation is to have to achieve the greatest consensus as a table. Welcome all the diversity of this Congress, because that is the intelligent and responsible way to be able to carry out the processes”, he indicated.
The future of the agreement, and the weakened position of the PC
Parliamentarians from different political sectors agree that the big loser in these negotiations for the presidency of the Chamber is the Communist Party (PC), which had to give in to pressure and give up Karol Cariola’s candidacy, in addition to bowing to the decision majority of the ruling party, who found in Vlado Mirosevic the ideal name to save himself from a more complex situation, such as leaving the head of both Chambers of the National Congress in the hands of the right, risking the governability of the Executive and the future of the reforms that They are part of your program.
However, from the communist caucus they refuse to lose a seat of power that –in their opinion– belongs to them and that they legitimately awarded themselves, so, although they supported Mirosevic’s nomination, they assume that it is castling, for what they hope to assume the presidency of the Chamber in the future, taking advantage of a quota that, they say, does not belong to deputy Cariola but to the party. “The position belongs to the PC. Today we are not talking about possible names and, when the time comes, we will see what the decision of the bench is,” deputy Boris Barrera slipped in this regard.
Precisely, the one who came out to support this idea of castling, confirming the possibility that the Corporation would be chaired in the future by a communist parliamentarian, was the new president of the Chamber, who assumes a role due to the contingency, since his nomination It wasn’t in the original plans. “What we have said today is that today a presidency is simply anticipated, but we have tried to keep the agreement as faithful as possible to the original agreement. The future presidencies of the Chamber, is part of what is going to be discussed in the future”, stated the PL deputy.
For her part, from Democratic Socialism, the president of the PS, Paulina Vodanovic, recognized that “this is indeed a very hard blow for the PC”, pointing out that during the official conclave this Sunday, in Cerro Castillo, solidarity was expressed to Karol Cariola, who was even received with applause. “I think she is a young deputy who has understood that this is a stumbling block, that it is nothing more than that,” added the socialist helmsman.
But while the PC accepted its defeat within the official forces, in the opposition they feel that they lost a unique opportunity for empowerment, assuming that they did not achieve sufficient coordination to reach an agreement that would allow them to reach the presidency of the Chamber. However, they do not hesitate to recognize as an ideological triumph that the Corporation has been prevented from remaining in the hands of a communist representative.
In this sense, the head of the bench of deputies and deputies of RN, Andrés Longton, stated that “obviously the fact that the Chamber has not been left in the hands of the PC is a relief, in a certain sense, but we also have the other leader of the Approval. Here It is not something personal, the PC has constantly been a stumbling block for the moderation that our country so badly needs and that citizens demand so much, especially since September 4. Yes, it may have been an important advance that the PC will not reach the head of the House, but we also have someone who represents a government program that has not been able to move a comma after the exit plebiscite”.
For their part, from the PDG they accepted their defeat and made a self-criticism for the lack of coordination in their bench, which prevented their pact with the right from coming to fruition. For deputy Rubén Oyarzo, this failure is explained by a bad negotiation, dissent within the Chamber and an internal breakdown that – in his opinion – made it impossible to reach an agreement. Within the community led by Franco Parisi they have not yet been able to define themselves as to whether they achieve alliances with the political forces of the government, or if they cross the line, they assume themselves as a right-wing party, and they are convinced of that.
In this way, with a frantic definition, the Chamber of Deputies and Deputies managed to rectify its new board of directors, which during the next eight months will play a crucial role in relation to the interests of a Government that needs temperance and the generation of necessary alliances to move forward with its flagging legislative agenda. Vlado Mirosevic was the official letter to convince those who saw in Karol Cariola a more radical leadership and that he was moving away from the gradualism that has prevailed in the discourse that was installed in La Moneda after the failure of the Approval in the exit plebiscite.
From now on, the challenge for the Executive and the parties that support it politically is to prevent its emblematic reforms from being diluted, and that the right is empowered and continues to accumulate positions of power. A strategy that for some voices in Approvebo Dignidad -coalition from which the current Government program emanated- becomes a change of route of the transforming spirit with which President Gabriel Boric arrived at the Palacio de La Moneda, and in which he continues to assume greater decision-making power Democratic Socialism, logically related to the former Concertación.
