On Sunday afternoon the celebrations were more timid than expected on Calle Santa Isabel. While the Electoral Service (Servel) was delivering the results, various figures from Approve Dignidad made the first analyzes behind closed doors, and although the strategy was to highlight the passage to the second round, the blow of having been two points behind José Antonio Kast was strong and deep.
That made this Monday in the Frente Amplio (FA) secrecy reigned. Some parties did not get happy accounts in the parliamentary either and that made the balance not the best. In any case, that does not mean that Boric’s command has been paralyzed far from it, since the specific works were activated to begin to shape and route a speech that has to bring closer a no lesser number of voters, if it is that they want to hunt down the candidate of the Christian Social Front.
But the post-election road was thorny for Boric, unlike Kast, who had no greater difficulty in coming out backed by the majority of the center-right. In the case of the Social Convergence deputy, he already had the first post-election tension with his partners from the Communist Party (PC). This Monday, Boric –in an interview with CHV-, Asked about a possible ministry for Daniel Jadue, he replied: “Daniel is doing well in the municipality and he is going to stay in the municipality. In the Government we need transversal people. We have to go out and talk to everyone and there I have no doubt that Daniel is going to collaborate in that line from the Municipality of Recoleta ”.
Although in the PC they recognize that Boric’s unchecking of communism is a discussed matter, they are critical of “unnecessary” phrases that can generate friction that they do not contribute in a second round. As an “unfortunate statement” it was defined by a communist militant. In those ranks there are those who admitted that such expressions are tense, at a time when the Communist Party is going through its own internal troubles.
“We believe that whoever was our candidate can collaborate from Recoleta; anywhere and with transversality. The allusion to a supposed ‘non-mainstreaming’ deserves an explanation to our party, “wrote the PC on Twitter. A message that communism gives also on the basis of a good parliamentary performance, achieving substantial growth in Congress.
It should be remembered that the statement by Nicaragua a few days ago also evidenced a break or at least two glances inside the hammer and sickle shop, not only on the situation in that country but also on the two positions before the candidacy. of Boric: a majority sector that supports it, that gambles it in the territorial work and that has put faces in this pact; and another, a minority, that would analyze the costs of being a government, and that has put stones in the path of the pact that have ended up hitting the candidate, as happened with Nicaragua. “Here, there are no political blunders, they know the effect that something like this has on the campaign,” said a member of Approve Dignity.
In the opinion of the political analyst Andrés Cabrera, “increasing tensions beyond what is necessary is not beneficial for the Broad Front and the Communist Party, especially with the results that were seen yesterday. That impasse it should be resolved more or less quickly, because the priorities should be different. “
A new story for the second half
At the same time, there is a transversal diagnosis: Gabriel Boric must modify the discourse, adjust the story and stop talking to the niches. The fact that Boric’s vote did not grow significantly with respect to the primaries of Approve Dignity showed that it failed to convene outside that space in a majority way. In the block, several argued that the standard-bearer should leave behind the “assembly speech”, speak to the citizens, to the territories, resume work in the street and put aside an enlightened dialogue towards the elites, to redirect him to a connection with the popular world.
Daniel Jadue himself said in Future Radio that “our program has an addressee and that has to be the main object to be sought. There may indeed be a little change in the strategy that we are going to have to analyze, being more on the streets and less in the debates.”
The analyst Andrés Cabrera pointed to a change in the discursive axes of what is proposed. “I am going to quote an Argentine psychoanalyst, Jorge Alemán, who says that the advancement of the right and the extreme right at the international level is not even the leaderships, it is not even the extreme right parties, but rather they are communication agendas that settle and create climates of opinion, and in that José Antonio Kast has deployed a performance important, massifying the issue of order, narco-terrorism and immigration, and that has taken over the agenda and has left Gabriel Boric without the ability to maneuver and discursively “.
In his opinion, the candidate has been immersed in the discursive logics of the university niche and identity, but that requires aiming at a discourse where he talks about economics, the end to the AFPs, the 40-hour project and without necessarily focusing on the discourse October 18.
Boric and Kast’s shared challenge is to look for a hitherto unknown voter, such as Franco Parisi’s voter. According to a survey by Pulso Ciudadano and Activa Research, the majority of the Parisi electorate are men (63.7%) and belong to socioeconomic group D (66.4%), whose average income is $ 562 thousand, followed by group C3 , who earn about $ 899 thousand. Regarding their age range, the majority are between 18 and 30 years old (33.7%). In addition, the majority say they do not have a defined political position.
It is in this space where the commandos in the second round will try to influence. It was not free to hear his name come out, for the first time, from the mouths of both candidates in their respective closing speeches. Since I Approve Dignity, it is already shaping its voters to give shape and sensitivity to a speech that is attractive and convincing.
The complex challenge with the center-left
Boric’s task does not end there, because he must also summon his closest neighbors: the center-left, a sector fragmented and weakened in the last elections. The Socialist Party (PS) gave him unconditional support, however, in the Christian Democrats (DC) they decided to stretch the gum and give air to an internal debate before taking a collective position. Until now, Senator Francisco Huenchumilla has already made his support for Boric transparent, but inside the DC they are still hurt by the treatment they were given by the Broad Front and the PC, the criticism at age 30 and the slight they had in the failed primary.
In the case of the phalanx, today it has a General Council that will establish a National Board to discuss these issues, where there are options that range from supporting unconditionally to abstaining, highlighting the opposition position that the party will assume before the next government, whatever it is. be. Of course, they marked the point of completely distancing themselves from supporting Kast. For the analyst Andrés Cabrera, the debate could be intense, but there are points where agreement could be generated, for example, in the programmatic, in those areas in which they are close, such as in the Health proposal, among others. Something that is not yet officially on the table between the two political spaces.
The unconditional support that the PS gave Gabriel Boric, in any case, raised several suspicions, since it is not common not to put conditions or wait to be summoned with greater force. From within the party commanded by Álvaro Elizalde, they assured that the maneuver of the board, more than a broader look, had to do mainly with avoiding a conflict with the dissidents and, thus, preventing a “Maya or a Narváez ”will anticipate the play and then claim the board.
This support for any event of the Socialist Party was not seen with good eyes either within the DC, which in fact casts doubt on the strength of the New Social Pact, an already worn out coalition, which was “very beaten” after the defeat of the candidate. DC. For this reason, they explained, they hoped that a decision like the one Elizalde adopted would have been discussed and agreed upon.
Within the PS, from the sector closest to Paula Narváez, close to Camilo Escalona, despite the fact that the relationship is not going through its best moment, they would be convinced that with the passing of the hours, and in case Gabriel Boric became President, they would have a space of power and influence within their Government, which is reproached by their own peers.
A question that haunts the broad spectrum of the opposition is also how much influence the presence of former President Michelle Bachelet in Chile, who arrives before the second round, can influence. And although sectors of the former Concertación say that Bachelet is not about to be actively involved, some do read that there could be gestures that could help in the current scenario against Kast.
