Intense conversations were held during the conventional Let’s Go for Chile Monday to reach an agreement for one of the vice-presidencies of the Constitutional Convention.
Thus, constituents of the collectives of Independents, RN-Evópoli have tried to come to terms with those of the UDI and the Republican Party in order to unblock the pending situation since last week, when different forces of the Convention presented the 24 necessary sponsorships for each of the seven deputy vice-presidencies that make up the table. The two pro-government collectives, however, did not reach an agreement and, until the weekend, each had only 21 rubrics, leaving one of these vacancies.
The negotiations became tense as the UDI collective and the Republican Party accused their peers of first going to negotiate with sectors of the center-left to obtain the vice presidency, which ultimately did not work. Independent RN-Evópoli have said, meanwhile, that they are trying to impose a name on them and that they want the former president of RN Christian Monckeberg whoever holds that position.
The annoyance of sectors of that party with the UDI for trying to “veto Monckeberg” even reached La Moneda. The RN helmsman, Francisco Chahuán, represented yesterday the discomfort of the community during the meeting of the expanded political committee in the Palace. There, according to those present, he and the leader of the UDI, Javier Macaya, agreed to talk regarding the matter.
But the mainstream unionists are not willing to support him. Although they say that it is not something personal once morest the former minister, they maintain their reservations because they believe that RN made a mistake by going to negotiate with other forces first.
Faced with this scenario, on Monday morning the union-republican collective transmitted that they had everything ready to support Hernán Larraín Matte (Evópoli), who is part of the same group as Monckeberg. This would have already been discussed with him and he would be willing to accept that support.
While they added that a statement would be sent to confirm that information, from RN they assured that the dialogues were still open and that nothing had been settled. And at the close of this edition, the talks were still going on.
From the force that supports Monckeberg they warned that, if Larraín Matte accepts that formula, The group of Independientes RN-Evópoli is put in check and that, even, may mean a break and a greater deepening of the differences in the sector. This, in a context in which the differences between conservatives and liberals were already manifested in the division of the group Vamos por Chile into two forces, at the beginning of November.
“We have continued talking with the UDI, specifically with Rodrigo Álvarez and from RN with Cristián Monckeberg, Francisco Chahuán and Diego Schalper, and I believe that there has been some progress, but we have not yet reached an agreement, “he told The Third PM the conventional RN Raul Celis, who is one of those who have spearheaded the talks.
Regarding whether Larraín Matte accepts the vice-presidency, Celis added that “this is a situation that should not occur, because the Republicans and the UDI have 21 signatures, plus eventually the four Evópoli would have 25, but as a political signal for the coalition it would be very negative. It would undoubtedly produce a very negative impact within several of us who are part of RN ”.
In that sense, he added that “we are going to continue insisting that there is a reasonable solution and that implies avoiding any kind of breakdown for the sake of projecting our alliance in the future. For us, the most reasonable thing is that it is because it meets a requirement that few center-right people can have, which is to have the support of people who do not belong to our sector and that is one of the meanings of the Convention, to reach agreements ”.
The Third PM He tried to contact Larraín Matte, who limited himself to saying that the talks were still ongoing.
As the hours passed, the dilemma grew to such an extent that the RN leadership met with the party’s conventionalists to try to unblock the conflict. After that appointment, Monckeberg raised with his peers the option of resigning his option.
In a WhatsApp group, he said, among other things, that the conflict might not continue, that it was necessary for a member of the group to be in a position to lead in the next six months and that they must remain united.
He also suggested another formula to unblock the conflict: divide the term of the vice presidency in two so that RN and Evópoli occupy the post. Thus, the options of other names such as Roberto Vega, Álvaro Jofré, Paulina Veloso or Ruggero Cozzi also began to be considered. However, in the environment of the former minister they say that they hope that the UDI enters reason and ends up accepting his name.
Anyway, in the unionism they were at stake to support Larraín Matte and they were not willing to support the former RN member. They also stressed that these differences are not new, but date back a long time. And, in that sense, they remember that when the name of Rodrigo Álvarez was promoted, RN did not put their signatures, except that of Harry Jürgensen.
In addition, some add – privately – that “it is untenable that RN insists on Monckeberg as the only name following its search for signatures in front failed”. In the same way, in the unionism they pointed out as the real problem that RN has an internal conflict in his party that he has not managed to resolve and that has been extrapolated to the discussion of the vice presidency, which they dismiss in that community.
The issue, in any case, caused annoyance in RN because they said that Larraín Matte would have been enthusiastic regarding the idea and “would be moving to be vice president,” a discomfort that Monckeberg would have made him aware of. Similarly, among the conventional RNs it also generated anger that the UDI, they say, contacted Luis Mayol directly to offer him support for the vice presidency, who would have refused, reiterating his support for the former Minister of Housing.
On the other hand, the former president of the party Mario Overflows summoned the community led by Javier Macaya to comment on it.
“I call on the UDI leadership to correct what is happening. What the constituents are doing is completely unacceptable and if it also has the support of the board, it leads us astray. I hope this is something confined to the constituents, if not, we will go back to the logic of the nineties where one party vetoed another. And if that is the attitude of the current leadership and what is to come, I think it is necessary to reevaluate the alliances in this coalition and see if RN wants to remain allied with a party that wants to return to the logic of the 90s, “he said.
