President Gabriel Boric, upon returning to La Moneda from the Cathedral -in the traditional Ford Galaxie- assured that there is an idea that has been “turning around”. “In order to build a country, and to be able to rediscover ourselves as a society, we need to be able to listen to each other. And that’s something that I rescue both from the words of yesterday in Puente Alto (Te Deum Evangélico), and those of today in the Cathedral”.
”We bear fruit only when we are united with Chile. And to be united with Chile (…), the first thing we have to do is respect the opinion of those who think differently and find spaces to advance differences. Do not be fanatically clinging to your own ideas. But to listen to what is good in someone who has another point of view. I believe that this is something that has been weakened in our country lately, and it is something that we have to recover,” added the President.
The keys to the speeches of religious figures
The Cardinal of the Catholic Church, Celestino Aós, described the current context of the country as “challenging and beautiful times”. “Injustices, problems and dissatisfactions led us to the social outbreak of October 18, 2019, since November 15 we had the process to change the Constitution, the election of a new President, the vaccine and the fight against Covid,” he outlined.
“In addition to violence, organized crime, economic insecurity, poor health care, poor relationships and disturbed coexistence,” he said, and faced with this scenario he called on the authorities to seek agreements: “A series of problems that the leaders and rulers must know and work to solve possible conflicts with dialogue and collaboration”.
“Violence does not build (…). Nor do the corrupt build. (…) We must work together, wrapped in joy and hope. We cannot turn the other who does not think like us into an enemy. The people voted in the plebiscite, and it is bad to violate through insults and threats those who voted in one way or another, ”he added.
Rabbi Eduardo Waingortin, for his part, described that “in this new anniversary of the country we face the pain of seeing our citizens polarized and confronted.” In this way he asked for peace in the country, and called for humility to promote dialogue and leave arrogance behind.
He said that “peace is built and promoted through dialogue, from humility, with empathy, with cordial and friendly treatment, and with conduct that exalts democracy and the republican spirit.” While “the destruction of peace is promoted with disqualification, the lack of condemnation of all types of violence, or its justification. And the arrogant attitude of believing to be bearers of the only truth. Humility, humility builds peace. Pride destroys it”.
From the Muslim community in Chile, its representative and imam – the person in charge of leading prayers in the mosque and who acts as a guide in prayers – also called for peace and the reestablishment of dialogue. “The Muslim community rises for the reestablishment of friendship between Chilean men and women (…) making our enriching differences a means to work in harmony, to make Chile a prosperous country,” he assured.
The reflection of the political actors
Cardinal Celestino Aós during the ceremony assured that “the number of people who were involved in voting in the plebiscite is a strong fact. But political participation does not end or end there. Christian laity should be involved in politics, because it is an extensive form of charity, since it deals with the common good. The authorities are responsible for promoting the common good and for this reason they must favor the culture of dialogue and encounter”.
Words that the mayor of Santiago Irací Hassler (PC). “I heard a call for us to get involved as Chilean men and women in life together. And that also implies being part of politics, of decisions. And particularly now in the search for a constitutional process that unites us as a country”.
For his part, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Raúl Soto, anchored the call of the Church to the constituent process: “I join that call, it is time to reconcile, it is time to move forward together. We have a historic opportunity to build a better Chile. We cannot make mistakes in the decisions we make this time.”
“May reconciliation come, may we overcome these parties and from there we can collectively build an agreement that allows us, on the one hand, to lay the foundations for a new constituent process, but on the other, also to respond to the social emergencies that citizens in terms of security and economics,” he added.
These words are given in the middle of the pause that Chile Vamos -UDI, Renovación Nacional (RN) and Evópoli- gave last Thursday to the conversations that are taking place between the parties with parliamentary representation to agree on a design that will elaborate a new Constitution. Event caused, as explained by the heads of the center-right parties, by the words of government ministers, such as Vallejo and Carolina Tohá, from the Interior, who interpreted it as a “paute” in the talks to hurry up the agreements on a new Charter great.
Specifically, Chile Vamos sent a letter to the president of the Upper House, Álvaro Elizalde (PS), asking: to reschedule the meeting that was scheduled for last Thursday at 9 am for next Friday, September 23; that the composition of the instance be reconsidered, that is, that there be a proportionality of attendees according to the representation that each party has in Parliament, and that no representative of the Executive attend the dialogue instance.
Deputy Raúl Soto asked the Government “understand that the leading role (of the conversation about the continuation of the constituent process) is rooted in the National Congress, not in La Moneda”. However, he assured that as the co-legislative government, the Minister Secretary General of the Presidency, Ana Lya Uriarte, should be involved in the talks.
Senator Evópoli Luciano Cruz Coke assured that “The dialogues continue. We have to see the best way to carry out a constitution that unites us all, learning from the process that has just ended and that will also give us certain lessons of at least understanding that we have to not repeat old mistakes and give the country a Constitution that allows progress and hopefully last 40 or 50 years”.
The president of the PPD, Natalia Piergentili assured that “It is important that we can sit down and talk about the differences we have between the different political blocks, but always thinking about how to enable this citizen constituent process.”
“I think that the limits that were already set on November 15 can exist and other borders can be established, but the constituent power that is going to be constituted for a new constitutional discussion cannot be limited to the extreme,” he added.
Piergentili was referring to one of the ideas that is gaining strength in the parties of Chile Vamos where they are reaching common guidelines for the next meeting on constituent design between parties with parliamentary representation. For now, they are directing their proposal to set margins for discussion before a new Constitution begins to be drafted, such as: a unitary country, in order to avoid the concept of plurinationality; that the autonomy of the Central Bank and two symmetrical chambers for the political system be consigned, among other limits.
