This Monday, at the Palacio de La Moneda, the first official political committee was held after the registration of candidacies for the election of constitutional councilors, in the midst of a polarized climate and marked by the absence of several of the party presidents , because of the vacation period, or illness, as in the case of the PPD helmsman, Natalia Piergentili. In fact, only the PS and the Radical Party (PR) were represented by their respective presidents, Paulina Vodanovic and Leonardo Cubillos.
Precisely, in dialogue with The counter, Cubillos assured that during the meeting he perceived a good mood, beyond the recent public confrontations between representatives of both progressive electoral pacts, “Unity for Chile” and “Todo por Chile.” “I think that without prejudice to the circumstances, that perhaps for some people there is a different analysis of the decision that was adopted to go on two lists, we are indeed two electoral pacts that came out of a matrix and of course that we do not lose sight of the fact that our main objectives are to seek a new Constitution and also to continue supporting the Government in everything possible,” said the radical helmsman.
And he continued: “We attended, socialized and decided to compete on two lists, not because we did not feel comfortable, but because what we are aiming for is precisely an electoral strategy with well-defined strategic objectives, in order to broaden the electoral base of the Government and generate social cohesion in the Government, in a vote that, at first, was —in the second round— with President Boric and that we were losing over time.This is demonstrated by the different opinion polls that mark a certain percentage of accession”.
In short, for the president of the PR, “these results show that we are failing in something, and when we are failing in something it is because perhaps the speech is not reaching and is not being understood by all citizens, and therefore if our parties They serve as catalysts in order to reach a center-left public that today is not with the Government, well, we will be the spearhead and that will be our strategic objective to be able to recover that electorate, so as not to give it away to the right or to populism “.
In this regard, Cubillos warns that both his party and the PPD understood that there is an “enormous risk” of handing over an electorate that would eventually continue to disaffected and disengage from the social transformations that, in his opinion, are shared by both pro-government coalitions. From his point of view, the progressive, center-left and center-left electorate, which has supported the governments of the former Concertación and former Nueva Mayoría, has been moving away and disaffected, and that is precisely what his sector seeks to ignore .
“For President Boric’s government to become a parenthesis, it is clearly an error that we want to avoid. Therefore, we must consolidate the social transformations, we must consolidate a new Constitution and we are all committed to that (… ) Therefore, more than being aware of one or another party that does not agree with our position, we are convinced, as a pact, to go looking for that because we have to help make those social transformations a reality. politics becomes even more polarized, giving up that space in the center, and leaving only the left and the right as great bipolar specters in Chilean society,” added the president of the Radical Party.
Meanwhile, and in relation to the campaign to elect constitutional councillors, and in the face of criticism for the nomination of candidates belonging to the “old politics”, some of them faithful representatives of the spirit of the former Concertación, Cubillos believes that it is ” unfair” to rule out people beforehand, because in his opinion, it will ultimately be the electorate who will define whether these candidates are still a contribution or not.
Finally, faced with the influence of former President Ricardo Lagos in his sector and his eventual participation in the constituent process that has just begun, the PR helmsman assured that “I would expect him to play a more active role and hopefully he will, as well as former President Bachelet. They are great statesmen who have a global vision of the country and I believe that today more than ever we need their advice and guidance because today the country has to grow, it needs a new Constitution and it seems to me that the experience of both is to help build that.”
