The President of the Chamber of Deputies and Deputies, Vlado Mirosevic (PL), this Friday addressed recent incidents in the Corporation and the tension between his figure and the opposition. In this regard, he pointed out that if he were Nelson Mandela (former South African president, noted for his fight against apartheid) in office, “I would be having the same problems.”
“I do not personalize it with respect to me. I think that if Nelson Mandela were in the presidency of the Chamber, he would be having exactly the same problems that I am having, because there are people here who have gotten used to having an undisciplined attitude,” Mirosevic said in conversation with the press.
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“It seems that some have not assumed that there was an election, where we won, and it seems that they have not respected that result very much, and there are others who do not like this idea of bringing order to the room,” the legislator added.
“They believe that because they are parliamentarians they have the right to do whatever they want, and I tell them ‘yes, they have the right to speak, to vote, to make their political expressions freely, but not to insult,'” he added.
Incidents in the room
Since Mirosevic assumed the presidency of the Lower House two weeks ago, he has faced various incidents. The most recent occurred on Wednesday, in the discussion for the 2023 Budget.
During the day, the deputies voted an indication that increased the Universal Guaranteed Pension (PGU) to $250,000 pesos, starting in January 2023.
The legislators voted the admissibility of the indication. It was rejected with 64 votes in favor (it needed 65). The opposition benches accused Mirosevic of preventing the votes of flower weisse (UDI) and Carla Morales (RN), who were in the bathroom. Despite the fact that they came running to vote, they were not enough.
The heads of the opposition party benches (Andrew Longton (RN), Jorge Alessandri (UDI) and J.osé Carlos Meza (Republicans)) accused Mirosevic of mishandling the table and warned him that, if it continued like this, they would submit a motion of no confidence.
“A week after assuming the Presidency of the Chamber, I have already received 5 threats of being censored by the opposition. I hope that the tensions will drop and a majority will support us in our plan to bring order to the Chamber and speed up laws”, Mirosevic pointed out yesterday.
Another incident that Mirosevic experienced was when he gave his first speech as speaker of the House. At that time, the deputy René Alinco (IND) cut him off. “Talk to everyone, President,” Alinco said according to his colleagues.