The helmsman of the Socialist Party (PS), Paulina Vodanovic, announced in full central committee that former president Michelle Bachelet is willing to compete in the elections for constituent councilors on May 7.
However, Bachelet set a condition. The former president would be willing to assume the candidacy only in the event that all the parties of the ruling party, plus the Christian Democracy, integrate a single list.
The same day the general council of the PPD ratified, with 94% approval, the decision of its political commission to compete on a separate list of I Approve Dignity.
Hours after the PPD’s decision, the PS stated in a statement that “unity is a matter of the present, but it is above all a matter of the future” and added: “we have to go together from the DC to the PC.” Despite the fact that the PPD repeatedly emphasized the will to differentiate the coalitions in the face of the May 7 elections.
What’s more, former senator Guido Girardi (PPD) even described the eventual union of the ruling party in the elections as a “pardon list”.
On the other hand, the head of the bench of the socialist deputies, Marcos Ilabaca, explained to Third that “the president was super clear: she wants a unitary list and when this list exists, she will be a candidate.”
Faced with the announcement of the PS, the call for unity and the possible candidacy of Bachelet, the responsibility for a separation in the official coalition to enter the constituent process would fall on the PPD. It is also added that hours before, it was announced that former President Ricardo Lagos (PPD) would have a conversation with the party’s general council.
Through Zoom, the former president stated that “in order to give the government more strength, there must be a strong and supportive expression of Democratic Socialism, which the PPD is called to embody together with the other forces (…). It is not dramatic that in order to defend a government coalition we understand that the PPD must be capable of leading a broad conglomerate in which Christian Democrats, radicals and democratic socialists can actively participate (…)”.
In this way, the confrontation between the two ex-presidents in the face of the elections for constitutional councilors was evidenced. On the one hand, Bachelet made it a condition that the 10 official parties, from the Communist Party to the PPD, agree to integrate a single list. While Lagos reinforced the idea of forming a list without I Approve Dignity. The deadline for a definitive definition is running.
