I have not changed the principles, I am still a person of the left who deeply believes in democracy, in equality, who believes that the State should have a much more relevant role of leadership in the economy than it has had up to now “
Gabriel Boric, President of Chile.
It is 6:40 in the afternoon on Thursday, December 22 in La Moneda and President Gabriel Boric has just left the political committee. It was an intense day in which he worked on the details of the security agreement that the Ministry of the Interior is pushing and that he hopes to make known before the end of the year. The intensity of the day will not cease: at midnight a State of Catastrophe will be declared in Viña del Mar due to a serious fire that hit the city.
—What makes you proud of these nine months as President?
(Thinks) We could divide it into two things. I am very proud of having achieved, thanks to responsible planning and intersectoral coordination, total free healthcare in the public system with the Zero Copayment program. Also that we have managed to recover social dialogue: important proposals such as the minimum wage had the agreement not only of the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT), but also of large companies and SMEs.
And, in state visits, they have made me aware of the tremendous value that exists at the international level of our country and of the hopes placed in the process that we are carrying out.
There are also errors. Which ones do you recognize?
The distinction between conviction and voluntarism is very important when one has government responsibilities. And I believe that our first approach to a conflict as difficult and deep as the one that exists in La Araucanía (seat of a conflict between the Mapuche people and the Chilean State), had at the beginning, as a government, voluntarism.
Another thing: I think that the discussion regarding withdrawals (from pension savings) was very damaging. That resource, which should be totally rare, spread too far and caused damage. And in this, being responsible in the long term, attending to the emergencies of now, is a difficult balance, but one that we have to find.
Do you regret having supported the withdrawals?
Yes in the third and fourth. I think it is a door that must be closed because it does a lot of damage, not to the economy as an abstract, it does a lot of damage to the people who need it the most.
—Has there been a kind of metamorphosis of Gabriel Boric since he took office with a speech where he spoke of “truth, justice, reparation and non-repetition”, to today when his issues are other: security, economy?
I continue to believe and fully defend justice, truth, and non-repetition. And I think that just before the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the coup, the appreciation of democracy and justice is going to be important. That being said, the priorities, not mine, of the citizenry, have changed. There was a telluric event that is on September 4 (the electoral defeat of a new constitutional text) and we have to adjust to that, which does not mean changing the conviction. But in security there had not been a more in-depth approach from the progressive sectors of the importance that it has for the people. Today we all understand that it is an enabling condition for anything else and we have put it at the center of the debate, because it is the center of citizen concern.
—But did that reality and that pragmatism brought about by this telluric movement change the government’s agenda?
The agenda has of course been modified, but without neglecting the structural reforms for which we arrived. For me it would not make sense to govern or be in this place if it is not to carry out important transformations in the distribution of wealth and power in Chile, which is what I understand is behind the malaise that was expressed from October 2019 onwards. The social outbreak was not an invention, there are some who try to deny it or simply discredit it. The discomfort was real, it is real. Today the priorities may be other, but that is still there, let’s not hide it under the rug.
—How is your relationship with businessmen today? What opinion do you think they have of you?
It depends. Those who know me or those who don’t know me. And I would also distinguish in which businessman. With the traditional Chilean business community, for example, we have a very different relationship than with startups, which is a fluid, supportive relationship, sometimes critical, but innovative critical, about how we can work better.
—Does the government also have a prejudice against businessmen?
Putting all businessmen in one word is wrong. There are very different types of entrepreneurs. I think the main prejudice that one breaks is thinking that they are all the same.
—In your speech for the Factory Development Society (Sofofa) you said “we cannot put them all in the same bag”.
The politics of reductionism is very easy. And as a parliamentarian I once fell for that.
Putting everyone in the same bag and filling them with adjectives is very easy for discourse, but it is useless for building. We must have a more agile State, not heavy or overwhelming. And it must be in collaboration with the private world.
—The pension reform presented at the beginning of November has had enough criticism. Would the government be willing, for example, for part of the 6% additional contribution to go to individual capitalization?
We are aware that, and I do not see this as necessarily negative, given the composition of Parliament, it is necessary to reach an agreement. And I would expect those agreements to be institutional and not person to person. I am willing for our project to improve.
But there is a principle that it is important to uphold, which is that it is necessary to incorporate elements of solidarity into the system and that the current model based on individual capitalization does not serve to deliver good pensions.
