This Wednesday, the Chamber of Deputies and Deputies made effective the resignation of the current board of directors, commanded by the PPD Raúl Soto, who will remain in that position until next November 7. That day, the Lower House will have to elect a new president, who until a few days ago was surely Karol Cariola (PC), due to the parliamentary agreement signed last March by practically all the benches, except the one on the right.
However, as days went by, Cariola’s name began to falter, due to the doubts generated by his name in the People’s Party (PDG), the DC caucus and some independent deputies, especially after the PC’s support for a complaint filed against the former director of the INDH, Sergio Micco. For this reason, the Executive began a campaign led by the Segpres minister, Ana Lya Uriarte, to save Cariola’s name due to the fear that by not respecting this parliamentary agreement, the right would take control of both chambers, which would jeopardize the government’s legislative agenda.
So far, Uriarte’s urgent negotiations have been unsuccessful, because despite meeting with some DC and independent deputies to tell them how important it was for the Executive to respect the March parliamentary agreement. For this reason, the Government is already managing a Plan B so that the PC does not lose the presidency.
Said plan, according to congressional sources, was to remove Cariola from the presidency and for said position to be occupied by another communist parliamentarian. They run with an advantage in this matter Luis Cuello, Daniela Serrano and Alejandra Placencia. This was confirmed a couple of weeks ago by the PC bench, who were aware of this option, but at that time the party’s position was to respect the agreement reached in March. Today, the situation is different and they have no room for manoeuvre.
With this desperate move by the Government, the aim is to preserve official votes that had been questioned by Cariola’s presence in the race for the head of the Chamber, because his image was associated with the failed Approval campaign.
If this does not work out, the other plan that the Executive has is for the PC to cede the quota or cast its presidency for another year. This so that another pro-government parliamentarian takes over the table.
Already in third option -and the most difficult- is to make another emergency administrative agreement, with the UDI, RN and Evópoli.
