“Boric, friend, the people are with you.” It was one of the shouts that interrupted the speech of President Gabriel Boric, from the balcony of the Palacio de La Moneda, in front of many people who gathered with flags, presidential sashes and in a family atmosphere.
Minutes late, the President entered the Government Palace on the red carpet, but first he wanted to honor the statue of Salvador Allende, amid the cheers of those present nearby. Allende has been the center of several of his speeches and yesterday’s was no exception, with his finishing touch being a reference to one of the former President’s most famous quotes, with which he closed: “As Salvador Allende predicted almost 50 years ago , we are again, compatriots, opening the great malls through which the free man, the free man and the free woman, pass, to build a better society”, said the Head of State, reaffirming his political identity.
But his first speech as President-in-Office -28 minutes long- was marked by a detailed diagnosis of the urgent problems that the country is experiencing – without avoiding the most complex ones – by messages with a clear political orientation, symbolism, political gestures to the center-left and also to the now opposition. The emphasis on feminism and the gender perspective permeated several lines of his speech. Also migration, not only emphasizing that it will not leave alone those who live in the areas most affected by the massive arrival of migrants, but also stressing that we must not forget that those who arrive in the country are also “human beings. Yes, human beings.” “.
He closed a flank that was open several times during his campaign, in relation to the protection of human rights and the position against certain countries accused of violating them. Alluding to the contingency of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the President stressed that “Chile, our country, will always promote respect for human rights, everywhere and regardless of the color of the Government that violates them.”
On short-term measures, there were some. The most concrete was to reiterate the commitment to reduce the working day to 40 hours per week, and to highlight, despite the onslaught from the right, the decision to have withdrawn the complaints under the State Security Law in cases that occurred in the context of the outbreak social, while in unison several of those present in the Plaza de la Constitución cheered “release, release, the prisoners for fighting.” “We have discussed it with the relatives of the prisoners, they know we are working on it,” he said.
The director of the School of Government and Communications of the Central University, Marco Moreno, considered that “it was a speech that had a greater prominence of the symbolic and less public policies. The campaign is done in verse, but it is governed in prose, and this was probably the last of this process where things are postulated in verse, but now the prose comes, with reality. I have the impression that one could speak of a kind of realism but without renunciation 2.0, as Bachelet had”, he added.
the ground wire
For several in the current ruling party, this first intervention as President-in-Office would show a more symbolic, more emotional Gabriel Boric, as also a closure of the entire most epic process that his presidential campaign meant, to already assume the first clashes today of reality and reduce the speech to the facts, as the President himself revealed in his words: that in 4 years his administration will be judged by what he did, not by his words.
The central point was the ground cable that he installed – and which he had already shed light on before – in order to lower the temperature of the high citizen expectations, already putting on the table that they will make mistakes, but asking for reciprocity to amend them together with the citizens. “We know, compatriots, that meeting our goals will not be easy, that we will face external and internal crises, that we will make mistakes and that we must correct those mistakes with humility, always listening to those who think differently and relying on the people of Chile”, emphasized.
“We will not remove the problems, we are going to explain, we are going to talk with you to tell you the reason for our decisions so that they are also part of the solutions (…). It is important that there is also reciprocity, and what do I mean by that, that the relationship with the authorities is not one of consumers, that we work together, that we are citizens and that this is the Government of the people and you feel it as your Government, of all Chileans and Chileans”, he added.
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political identity
References to former presidents are not new, and they were an active part in the speeches of Gabriel Boric in the second round. Last night, in his words, he revealed that his government is not starting from scratch. “We are not starting from scratch. Chile has a long history and, today, this day inserts us into that long history of our Republic”, he pointed out, naming former presidents such as José Manuel Balmaceda, Pedro Aguirre Cerda, Eduardo Frei Montalva, Salvador Allende, Patricio Aylwin and Michelle Bachelet, omitting more recent names such as Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, Ricardo Lagos and Sebastián Piñera, with whom from the world of I Approve Dignity there has been more distance. In the case of the outgoing government, he highlighted a successful vaccination strategy that he will give continuity to, but without naming Piñera.
Although the center-left parties were a key player in the second round campaign, also becoming protagonists in the cabinet, President Boric highlighted the points on the i’s, underlining the main role of his coalition, Approve Dignity, which some of she saw it as a gesture to the tensions that had marked the cabinet appointments. “Our Government, whose political base is Approve Dignity and, also, greetings to our colleagues who have worked so hard for this and, also, the Progressive Convergence parties,” he said.
Regarding the Constitutional Convention –one of the great milestones that will mark his term–, the President gave powerful support to the constitutional process, which has been in the crossfire for several weeks now. Although it has accentuated the autonomy of that space, it sent a message framed by the tensions that have arisen within it, with the claim of the right that claims to be marginalized in the decisions and proposals, in addition to the differences in interpretation of some of the these, which could affect the exit plebiscite. On this issue, from the right and center-left sectors they have asked the new government to help moderate certain proposals that are being voted on, in order to reach agreements and not end with a rejection of the constitutional proposal.
“I invite you to listen to each other in good faith, without caricatures, without caricatures, let’s take it seriously, from all sides. We say it to ourselves too, let us listen in good faith, without caricatures, so that the exit plebiscite is a meeting point and not a point of division and we can here, together with the people, sign a Constitution for the first time in the history of Chile , democratic, parity, with the participation of all our peoples”, he affirmed.
Security and Araucanía
“Criminals, the party is over,” was one of the slogans of the first government of now former President Sebastián Piñera, one of his great campaign promises and that could be one of the headaches of the new administration. That he would not use bombastic phrases, Boric said, but added that he will face crime and drug trafficking together with the community and with changes in the Carabineros.
Regarding La Araucanía, he spoke of “a problem”, which he defined as “the conflict between the Chilean State and a people that has the right to exist. And there the solution is not and will not be violence. We will work tirelessly to rebuild trust after so many decades, after so many decades of abuse and dispossession. The recognition of the existence of a people, with all that this implies, will be our objective and the path will be dialogue, peace, law and empathy with all the victims, yes, with all the victims”, he stressed.
