Once again, the Chileans said “no”. Sunday, December 17, nearly 56% of the more than 15 million voters rejected the project of a new Constitution bearing the seal of the extreme right and the right, after having already refused a previous text, marked on the left, in September 2022. Following the referendum, the fundamental law of 1980, inherited from the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) and reformed several times into a democracy, remains in force in Chile.
“During our mandate, the constitutional process ends, the emergencies are elsewhere”, declared the left-wing president, Gabriel Boric, following the result. The 37-year-old head of state has been in power since March 2022 for a period of four years. In the midst of a social revolt, in 2019, he was one of the architects of a political agreement aimed at erasing the Constitution of the dictatorship, accused of slowing down any social reform due to its key concept of “subsidiary state”. », authorized to intervene only where the private sector cannot.
Four years later, the observation is bitter. “The country has become polarized and, beyond this clear result, the constitutional process has failed to channel the hopes of having a Constitution written by all”estimated Gabriel Boric, while 80% of Chileans had called for the drafting of a new fundamental law in 2020.
Full tradition of the 1980 law
The proposal submitted to a referendum on Sunday was developed by a Constitutional Council composed of fifty members elected on May 7. This election marked the breakthrough of the Republican Party (far right) which, with the support of the right, drafted a conservative and economically liberal project. The fifty elected officials relied on a first text drawn up between March and June by a commission of experts, appointed by Congress. They greatly amended it. The final text retained the concept of “social state of law” but it was emptied of its substance, with articles establishing the possibility of choosing between the private or public system in matters of education, health or pensions. .
Other items dear to the far right, such as “deportation as quickly as possible” foreigners who entered Chile irregularly and the protection “of the life of the one who is to be born” were introduced. This latter concept risked threatening access to abortion, permitted in only three cases since 2017 (rape, non-viability of the fetus or danger to the life of the pregnant woman). The project written by the far right was in full tradition of the 1980 Constitution.
You have 45% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.