“I am born with the reflection that sometimes in life you need a little humility”.
With these words, Senator Francisco Huenchumilla (DC) addressed the decision of former President Eduardo Frei to vote Rejection in the exit plebiscite on September 4, without respecting the official position of the party that is going for Approval.
It should be remembered that during the night of last Wednesday, the National Board of the community, headed by the president of the DC, Felipe Delpin, agreed -by 63% of the votes- that they would support the proposal for a new Constitution issued from the Constitutional Convention . Meanwhile, 36% were for the Rejection.
During this Friday, former President Eduardo Frei issued a statement, where he confirmed that he will reject the exit plebiscite, since “I have insurmountable discrepancies about various contents of this proposal.”
Given this, Senator Francisco Huenchumilla (DC), said that Frei’s words “goes against the decision adopted by the highest body of Christian Democracy, such as its National Board, in order that all Christian Democrats are going to be for the Approval”.
“I ask myself the question: when a person is a former president of the Republic, does he have any special privilege that allows him to be against what his party decided? A former president has honors and dignities, due to the high position he held, but I I don’t think he has privileges as a citizen, because there is no monarchy in Chile, and when the president leaves that position he returns to being an ordinary citizen, and maintains the respect and dignities of the position, but does not maintain privileges over the rest of the their fellow citizens,” he emphasized.
“If you are a party member, I believe that you have to respect what hundreds of ordinary, ordinary members of the National Board agreed to in a clean, democratic process, that we should be as a party with the Approval and therefore the Rejection is ruled out,” he added.
Along the same lines, Huenchumilla said that “in the DC there are no feudalisms, there is no aristocracy that overlaps the militants and this also applies to other comrades who may have high positions.”
“Who gives you the right to rebel against the decision of a regular and maximum body of the party that makes a decision? Why are some going to feel privileged to say ‘look at this, it doesn’t affect me, it doesn’t reach me, it doesn’t I accept it’, in circumstances where a crucial political decision is being made for the country, so I don’t like those self-privileges granted by themselves. I feel that there is a certain arrogance of believing oneself superior to others, “said Huenchumilla.
“This type of haughty and arrogant attitude towards ordinary militants does not correspond to a democratic party,” he added.
On the other hand, Huenchumilla had words for the Falange table, led by the mayor of La Granja, Felipe Delpin, whom he urged to begin a process of “refichaje” of the party and thus advance in an ideological congress.
“I hope that the board headed by Felipe Delpin, with the support it has from the National Board, can face a great task, modernizing the party, holding an ideological congress, debating the issues and great ideas and country issues,” he said.
“But at the same time, make a re-signing of the party, where we know who we are and participate with our rights and obligations, and truly open up an internal democratic procedure, completely oblivious to any type of ignoble operations between us, in such a way that everything that let us agree that it is not only a regulatory thing, but also a legitimate one,” he added.
“We will truly open up an internal democratic procedure, completely removed from any type of ignoble operations between us. In such a way that everything we agree on is something that is not only regulatory, but legitimate, as was the case with the Board, but that has to be transmitted to the the party’s functioning as a whole”, he concluded.
