After the president of the Senate, Juan Antonio Coloma, together with the president of the Chamber, Vlado Mirosevic, will announce on Thursday a fast track security, there was concern in the ruling party for the absence of the Executive in said announcement. From the opposition they affirmed that, at the last minute, I Approve Dignity (AD) had decided not to align with the Government to support the measures. However, the deputy Lorena Fries (CS), after being consulted that day as to whether or not she was aware of the regulations, limited herself to saying “not yet.” The announcement by the leaders of Congress upset the ruling party.
“We want to move forward with a robust agenda, and that is why we have defined 31 projects that, we are convinced, have to be dispatched, but not all in the same period,” said Coloma among the columns of the former Santiago Congress when he made the announcement of the fast track security with his peer from the Chamber.
The president of the Chamber of Deputies and Deputies, Vlado Mirosevic, flanking Coloma, explained on Thursday night that the agreement came with the approval of the Government and that they wanted the “Chamber, Senate, Government, left, right to announce the Listed in total (…) we need, hopefully, the greatest unity possible, because this is not something of the opposition and the government, but rather it is about the urgencies of the great majority of this country”.
Despite noting that the speech pointed to a broad agreement, the ruling party was surprised by the absence of Executive authorities and how late they made the announcement, it was after 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. In the team of Senator Coloma they said that the talks on this package of measures began on Holy Thursday and continued daily until the day of the announcement. incl.usage, note that President Gabriel Boric himself had participated in those conversations. However, the agenda proposed by the two representatives of Congress does not seem to fit with the times required by the Government.
From Chile Vamos they pointed out that the absence of Minister Tohá was surprising and notified at the last minute. Senator Coloma would have called the media to attend the big security announcement at 11:00 that same Thursday. The minister, before the sudden call, asked for time and said that both parties should be in the announcement: Executive Power and Legislative Power.
Coloma and Mirosevic agreed to give more time on Thursday morning. It was only at that moment that the Ministry of the Interior began to sound out the mood in the ruling party and learned that there was no transversal agreement to endorse the 31 measures. More conversation was required. Despite this, the leaders of Congress decided to go out to make the announcement that Thursday at 7:00 p.m., while Minister Tohá called an emergency meeting with the presidents of the ruling parties for Friday at 8:30 a.m. . It was only in that Political Committee that the ruling party reached an agreement and decided to support the list of 31 measures.
rumors
In La Moneda they accuse the presidents of Parliament of not waiting the necessary time to socialize the measures with the government coalition and that it was Coloma and Mirosevic who anticipated the announcement, without waiting for the steps that the Minister of the Interior had to make , Carolina Tohá, with her conglomerate. The event on Thursday night managed to unsettle the ruling party, which interpreted the absence of the Executive and pro-government parliamentarians as a new chapter of disagreements between the government and Approve Dignity.
Just on Friday morning, after the extraordinary meeting of the Political Committee, the presidents of the ruling parties made public their support for the 31 measures that will enter Congress. However, in the opposition they also took advantage of warning the president of the Senate: “The call that I would make to Senator Coloma, with great respect and civic friendship, is that we chose him as president of the corporation, he is not a representative of the UDI or a political sector. The sense of urgency that they want to give to the procedures is fine, but I think it is important to do things well and seriously”.
In the opposition, meanwhile, they assured that the problem had not been Coloma but that of Approve Dignity, which was again the thorn in the shoe because it did not agree with the measures. However, from the parliamentary world of AD they assured that the problem was that they were not aware of the measures and that is why they did not come out to support them on Thursday night.
The deputy Lorena Frides, who is part of the Security commission in the Chamber, assured on Friday that she was not yet aware of the details of the proposals. “We understand that there has been a first round of consultations with the ruling parties and that there will be a meeting with the members of the Security Commission,” she said. Said meeting was set for Tuesday of next week.
The parliamentarians of Approve Dignity were not the only ones who did not find out about the measures. The opposition also warned of their ignorance, to such an extent that the RN bench of deputies sent a harsh letter to the president of the Chamber expressing their annoyance.
In it, they argued that “it is unacceptable that those who represent the diversity of political forces in the Chamber of Deputies find out from the press about prioritizations or other relevant decisions in the future of parliament.” In addition, they accused Mirosevic of exceeding his powers as president of the Chamber: “As the Secretary General of the Chamber can certify, there is no agreement for the Board or the President to speak on behalf of the Corporation in relation to agreements that affect substantively in legislative work, even in this context”.
Mirosevic on Thursday night called for “dialogue” and not to “boycott” an effort that is national. In addition, the Liberal Party militant defended himself by saying: “What we are doing with the President of the Senate and the Minister of the Interior is a prioritization of projects, someone has to do this exercise.”
The full lap ended in the same place it started. On Friday at 5:45 p.m., Coloma, Mirosevic, Tohá, along with Minister Luis Cordero and deputy minister Macarena Lobos left -now all together- from the offices of the former Santiago Congress to make the security agreement public. It was only at that moment that a spirit of agreement was perceived, since the two parties that negotiated the ambitious legislative agenda that will be the protagonist of the 2023 Congress met.
