The controversy has its origin on March 30, when the Administrative Directorate of the Presidency published the modification to the exempt resolution No. 978, of 2018, which, among other changes to the government structure, proposed the end of the denomination “First Lady”, being replaced by the name of President Gabriel Boric’s partner, Irina Karamanos. But it was only at the beginning of this week that the leaking of this document, through social networks, triggered a series of comments and reactions that caused the Government to retract, considering it an “administrative error”, leaving said modification without effect and stripping a new mistake in the “form”, with respect to a restructuring that was part of the campaign promises of the current President.
This Wednesday, from La Moneda they announced that finally the cabinet led by Karamanos will bear the name of “Sociocultural Coordination of the Presidency of the Republic”, in line with what, in their opinion, is related to the gradual transformation of the role of “First Lady”. But the controversy does not end with the name of this position, but the first questions begin to arise about what the functions and limits of its powers are, considering that its activities are directly related to the actions of ministries such as Development. Social, Women and Gender Equity and even the Ministry of the Interior.
As stated in the aforementioned resolution, the cabinet headed by Irina Karamanos “will be responsible for identifying, proposing and coordinating strategic guidelines and programmatic definitions for public policies, with the aim of contributing to the eradication of inequality and discrimination against historically excluded groups, with intersectoral approach, Human Rights and gender perspective”.
In this regard, the political analyst and academic secretary of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of the Autonomous University, Tomás Duval, is struck by the extensive functions granted to him in different subjects, which historically have not been associated with this position, compared to to which he considers imperative to define what is the space that this figure will have within the Government. “That weakness of granting him functions beyond his position, which interfere in other areas, I think it is a very deep problem and that it can greatly affect the management of the Government. I believe that the role of the First Lady was already more circumscribed every day, basically to a series of foundations and to work in that social field. It seems to me that this was the area in which this figure could have been circumscribed, but naturally this modification already reflects carelessness, a kind of internal disorganization, where he realizes that there is no concern for details, “said Duval.
In this sense, Marco Moreno, also an analyst and director of the School of Government of the Central University, adds that this recognition of the error by the Government as an administrative act makes invisible an underlying problem, which – in his opinion – it has a communicational component, but also a government capacity component, which has been weakened. “The communication problem has to do with the difficulty for the Government to be able to develop what is technically known as government communication, which is nothing more than building legitimacy on the decisions made by the Government. Of course, government communication cannot be carried out when what is being communicated are errors or misalignments that occur with respect to the design of that Government”, Moreno pointed out.
An unforced error that stops the columnist from The counter, Germán Silva Cuadra, reports the lack of care in the staging of a Government that, once again, is wrong in the “form” in which it carries out a reform that makes transparent the promises and ideas raised before its arrival in La Moneda, around a very strong criticism of the position of First Lady, giving an account of its necessary restructuring. For Silva Cuadra, the process should have been more thorough in terms of transparency, opening a certain debate or discussion, including multiple actors, also taking into account the previous attempts at change, which come from Marta Larraechea.
What does it mean to be First Lady?
In its 32 years of existence, since its creation in 1990, the Sociocultural Directorate of the Presidency has been headed by five First Ladies: Leonor Oyarzún, Marta Larraechea, Luisa Durán, Cecilia Morel and, now, Irina Karamanos. Exceptionally, Michelle Bachelet, not being married, appointed four different directors, in hers two steps from her by La Moneda: Adriana Delpiano; Maria Eugenia Hirmas; her son, Sebastián Dávalos; and Paula Forttes.
The position of First Lady is not regulated, she has an office, she has no remuneration, but she does have a group of advisers, financing, and seven foundations to her credit: Integra; Families Foundation; Prodemu; Mirador Interactive Museum (MIM); Youth and Children’s Orchestras; Chilean handicrafts; and Chilenter. According to the Comptroller General of the Republic, the First Lady is not required to make a Declaration of Interests and Assets (DIP).
As of 2009, it was called the Sociocultural Directorate of the Presidency; then, in 2010, the name was changed to the Cabinet of the First Lady; and in 2014, it was reappointed Sociocultural Directorate of the Presidency. The name change responds to the fact that, when Michelle Bachelet took office, she did not have a partner and appointed two women without a sexual relationship in her first government (Delpiano and Hirmas), and in her second government it was her son and, later, a woman without sex-affective bond (Forttes).
The fact that it is a position that is not legally regulated, as is also the case in most presidential democracies in the world, makes it a role that is transmutable by nature. The government’s decision is consistent with the criticism that was part of its campaign, but which could again encounter problems, in the hypothetical scenario that the powers of this position escape its socio-cultural area and begin to cross the limits of other ministries.
In this regard, the doctor in Political Science, Carolina Guerrero, affirms – in a column published in Third Dose– that “the position of first lady is political and has a lot of symbolism at a national and international level and therefore it is not rigid and can continue to change. It is important to resignify the role, give it a renewed look with a gender perspective, include greater standards of transparency and not duplicate functions that other government agencies already have, but rather coordinate and promote issues on the public agenda.
