Opposition benches articulate common proposals on security and pensions

The opposition reported that it is already working on a series of proposals in matters of public order, security and pensions to force the government of President Gabriel Boric to promptly show its cards regarding the most urgent reforms, which has allowed the opposition to unite under a common umbrella within Congress.

The new articulation work of the opposition groups in Congress is based on areas where there are common diagnoses, according to what RN deputy Andrés Longton told El Mercurio. “We have certain meeting points on certain basic principles such as public order, security and the property of pension funds, and to the extent that we continue to find more related issues, which I believe there are more that can unite than divide in the face of the reforms that President Boric is going to promote, we are going to generate a very articulated coordination”.

“The more force we unite, that will also translate into a greater number of votes in the House and therefore, that will also force the Boric government to sit down and talk with us (…) that will force it to yield on certain points, but always with the spirit of collaboration to be able to carry out the (pension) reform”.

Meanwhile, deputy Jorge Guzmán, deputy head of the Evópoli caucus, pointed out that “after what happened this week regarding retirement policies, I think that what is essential and urgent is to legislate truly and in a serious and responsible manner regarding a reform of pensions, but that takes care of the real needs of the people. And we believe that with the parties of Chile Vamos, more Republicans, plus the PDG and the DC, we can build a proposal that is limited to the points that unite us as opposition”.

Chiara Barchiesi, deputy head of the Republican Party bench, commented that “it is a job that we obviously want to do in the most serious and tireless way also to demand these points and for which a deputy from each of the parties will participate in teamwork to be able to make a joint proposal and as serious as possible. This is to do a little counterweight to what the Government is proposing and that we consider to be counterproductive”, while inviting the DC to be part of the group, despite the refusal of the Falange to be part of this bloc.

In the People’s Party they rushed to express a nuance since “we are not opposition at all, we are simply available to talk about important things,” said Yovana Ahumada, who leads the party created by the economist Franco Parisi . “If the Government brings it, we will talk with the Government, if they come from the left or right, we do not care about the political colors, because we are not from the duopoly, to put it in some way. Whoever brings it, if it’s something important, we’re going to talk or work”, he pointed out.