Last weekend, the Socialist Party (PS) decided to go on a single list, supporting what was proposed by its president, Paulina Vodanovic, and former President Michelle Bachelet was even proposed as leader of this option. However, during the week the forces of the center-left (PPD and PR) have not moved in the direction of the idea of a single list and, what is more, they are waiting for the PS to decide under which label to go to resume talks. This Tuesday there was talk that the Socialists would be in the middle of an internal struggle represented by the president of the community and the general secretary, Camilo Escalona.
The main difference that these leaders would present arises from the possibility that the single list does not materialize, the most likely scenario so far. On Vodanovic’s side, she would advocate joining a list along with the parties of the former Concertación, while Escalona would support the Government and, consequently, appear on the Approve Dignity list.
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Faced with this struggle, the Government spokesperson, Camila Vallejo, in an interview with TVNmaintained that “what we have indicated is nothing more and nothing less than respecting the autonomy and the definitions of the parties and there we understand that there was a fairly clear, broad and democratic and legitimate definition of the PPD, which was to go on a different list to that of Approve Dignity”.
“There is no double reading,” added Minister Vallejo. “What Camilo Escalona says, whom I also respect a lot and actually share, here there is no intervention, there is ratification of what was a deliberation by a party and for that reason we take it for granted that it was consummated.”
The spokeswoman for La Moneda thus addressed the annoyance of Escalona, who earlier stated that the two pro-government lists would be a “fait accompli” and that the government’s words “weaken our position.” In addition, she stated that she did not like that the ministers “intervene in issues exclusive to the parties.”
In the event that the ruling party does not come together in a single list, Vallejo ruled out that it is a “defeat.” Not at all, he commented, “we have a government with two coalitions (…) with which we are articulating, talking and working every day.”
“Beyond the decisions that the parties end up adopting, at the end of the day what is important for us is the understanding of a common project,” he asserted.
Finally, regarding the definition of the PS in its political commission —which takes place starting at 8:00 p.m.—, Vallejo affirmed that “what they deliberate democratically on their definition day is part of the respect for the autonomy that the parties have. No It remains for us as a government to respect that.”
