Not only applause and congratulations for his appointment as future Minister Secretary General of the Presidency was the deputy George Jackson (RD) in its passage through Congress.
In the chamber of the Chamber, he spent much of the time listening to requests from different deputies, he also suddenly found himself under pressure from some legislators to reinstate the debate for a new withdrawal of pension savings and then crossed to the Senate to meet with representatives of the benches of the PS, the PPD, Approve Dignity and the DC.
It was in that last meeting where the future head of the Segpres lived the most uncomfortable moment.
Starting, the head of the DC senators, Francisco Huenchumilla, was removed from the appointment as a sign of annoyance at the marginalization of the Falange in the new administration, despite the support given to Boric in the second round.
In addition, Huenchumilla himself was the one who opened a formula to try to unlock the project to favor the prisoners of the social outbreak, an issue that has been demanded with special interest by the president-elect Gabriel Boric.
The legal solution proposed by Huenchumilla and also by Senator Pedro Araya (independent PPD) went through replacing the previous pardon rule with an amnesty, thereby also lowering the quorum of votes, as there was no interference in the powers of the courts. That alternative, in fact, was the one that was dispatched yesterday from the Senate Constitution Commission.
However, the conversation between Jackson and the opposition senators who came to the meeting was rising in tone, according to some parliamentarians.
One of the versions indicates that Jackson -who had been invited to the meeting- was annoyed by the absence and delay of some senators who were late for the appointment.
Back, however, he had a harsh response from Senator PS Alfonso de Urresti, who even got to the doodles and left annoyed. “His reaction was a bit explosive,” admitted one of those present at the meeting.
Third tried to contact the socialist senator, but until the closing of this edition it was not possible to have his version of the events.
According to another testimony of the incident, the new Segpres minister never lost his composure. However, in the followingnoon, the president-elect’s team conducted polls among some senators to try to find out what had happened.
As background to the episode, some in the Senate admit that there was irritability in the environment not only because of the issue of appointments, since, in theory, when the PS was incorporated into the cabinet, its legislators should act more committed to the fate of the government of Boric.
A senator comments that the next appointments of undersecretaries and later of regional positions is a matter of concern.
However, there is also another factor that has stressed the senators: the pressure that Boric’s team put on Congress to quickly pass a law of pardon or amnesty for the prisoners of the outbreak.
De Urresti himself, on January 11, had asked the president-elect not to send “messages” to parliamentarians and summoned him to look for alternatives to find a consensus solution on this issue.
“(The president-elect) also has a responsibility in this type of situation (…) this is not only a legislative job, he also has to commit the Executive, both the current one and the one he will assume in March, In this way we will be able to provide a solution to a group of young people who are deprived of liberty”, said Senator PS at the time.
