The vice president, aligned with the new president, Gabriel Boric, converted into a social democrat
The visit that King Philip VI start this thursday Chile is special. Attend the inauguration of Gabriel Boricthe president furthest to the left since the 1970s Salvador Allende will arrive at Palace of La Monedabut also the youngest head of state in Latin America. Paradigm shift including tattoos and informality as a symbol of the access to power of a new generation, of a social class different from the one that historically dominated the politics of the country between the Andes and the Pacific.
Boric is 36 years old, and a decade ago he walked the streets of downtown Santiago shouting slogans as one of the leaders of the student marches that shook the country. Starting tomorrow, Friday, he will succeed the center-right Sebastian Piera in the Presidency.
There are, thus, not a few points of contact between Boric’s trajectory and those of the vice president Yolanda Diaz and the Minister for Equality, Irene Monterotwo of the members of the Spanish delegation in Chile, which also includes the president of the Senate, Andrew Giland the Secretary of Employment, Joaquin Perez. Jose Manuel AlbaresMinister of Foreign Affairs, got off the plane at the last moment by the war in ukraine.
Felipe VI landed in Santiago on a bright morning at the end of summer in the fifth economy of Latin America, a country where there are 15,000 million dollars in investments by Spanish companies. A country, too, that has been an oasis for these companies for decades, restless since the social outbreak of October 2019 and now expecting what the new government, clearly on the left, can do, although not as much as might have been thought months ago. And what comes out of the convention that drafts a new National Constitution.
Felipe VI supports with his trip to the Spanish companies, restless with Boric
Díaz was seen conversing in an accomplice tone with Montero, on the tarmac of the Santiago airport, days after the clash over the shipment of weapons to Ukraine. The vice president will stay until Sunday to hold meetings with Boric himself and with Jeanette JaraMinister of Labour, and with Irac Hasslerthe communist mayor of Santiago.
Daz agrees with Boric: Russia it is an aggressor state and Ukraine must be supported. Montero does not think the same, that he will hold meetings with the political forces of the new government, although not at the level of the parallel agenda of paul churches in November 2020, when he accompanied the King to the inauguration of louis arce on bolivia and sign the Declaration of La Paz along with several representatives of the Latin American left.
Camila Vallejo, leader along with Boric of those student demonstrations of 2011, is the new secretary general of government and minister spokesperson. Both Daz and Montero are expected to hold talks with the communist leader.
It is clear that there are many affinities and points of contact between the new Chilean government and the purple wing of the Spanish government, although there are also communicating vessels with the PSOE and clear differences between Boric and Can on burning foreign policy issues.
Gabriel Boric has had very deep criticism of the governments of the so-called Bolivarian axis, governments that have been questioned for their human rights violations, and also for populist economic policies, he explained weeks ago to THE WORLD the senator John Ignatius Latorre. that distance with Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba Boric earned derogatory words from the Venezuelan president, Nicholas Maduroand the absence of high-level representatives from those countries at this Friday’s ceremony in the Congress building in Valparaisobefore 500 people due to the pandemic, which Chile continues to take very seriously.
“Rebuild the unity of the country”
Beyond those of Boric and Piera, with whom he also met this Thursday, one of the faces that the King will see more frequently these days is that of Manahi Pakaratigeneral director of Ceremonial and Protocol of the new government and owner of a very special history.
Pakarati is the only Rapanui in the Chilean diplomatic service or, what amounts to the same thing, the only one born on Easter Island, which is how that Chilean territory in Polynesia is also known. Happy to be able to contribute a grain of sand to this new government of hope, in which the inclusion of all minorities will be a fundamental axis, said Pakarati, who confirmed to EL MUNDO that it was Felipe VI who requested, as is customary, the audience with the new Chilean president. And what will the King find in his dialogue with Boric?
If the conversation had taken place a few years ago, an interlocutor with strong ideas expressed at times with harshness. But as Boric, who was tougher and more ideological than Vallejo, evolved and matured politically, Felipe VI will have before him someone closer ideologically to the PSOE than to Podemos. What doesn’t change much is his informal style: on a recent visit to the Supreme CourtBoric appeared in a slightly oversized dark blue suit and worn-out shoes.
It’s the same Boric he knows well Diego Gonzalez, from the Metales Pesados bookstore, a few meters from the apartment where the new Chilean head of state lived until this week. Although he has a super left-wing spirit, he realizes that compromises have to be reached. He will govern in a consensual way. He is going to be able to give in, González assured EL MUNDO, surrounded by books with dense, heavy titles, as he himself describes it. It is the bookstore where Boric looked mostly for books on history and politics. Gabriel comes from social movements, but he opened up. Can it be said that he is no longer from the hard left, more a social democrat? Exactly. He wants to rebuild the unity of the country.
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