Genaro Arriagada, head of the “No” campaign, will vote for Rejection: Approval is “a dead end” | Special

Sunday July 10, 2022 | 14:42

Through an interview, a historic former DC militant, Genaro Arriagada, who was also head of the “No” campaign, announced that he will vote for Rejection in September.

The former DC militant and historical campaign manager of the “No” campaign for the 1988 plebiscite, Genaro Arriagadajoins the centre-left personalities who will vote Reject next September 4.

In a conversation with El Mercurio, he pointed out that “in the last stage of political life, I can’t keep quietalthough it may not be pleasant”, so he will vote Rejection and will defend his position.

“With the approval we hit a dead end; it is very, very difficult to reform this constitutional proposal. We have to avoid the country a culture war that deepens the wounds of 2019. A handful of articles are enough for a Constitution to have an authoritarian risk; there are more than a handful of provisions in this 370-article charter that open up threats to democracy and governance,” he said.

Arriagada was critical of the political system proposed by the Constitutional Convention: “has risks for democracy and governability. If a circumstantial majority controls the President of the Republic and the Chamber of Deputies, the winner can take all”.

“The president lost the right to veto, part of the emergencies, the exclusive initiative in terms of spending, among other powers. That danger can not only come from the left, but also from the extreme right. Who tells us that if the government of Boric, whom I respect and wish him success, ends badly, do not come a wave of hard right ”he added.

He also noted that “the proposal on the Power of attorney risks its politicization. I agree on the need for a National Council of Justice, but its integration is inadequate, its form of election will lead to partisan politicization and its powers are excessive, since in comparative law there is no other similar body.

“And it is not trivial, not a few recent dictatorships begin and affirm in the capture of the Judiciary, in the right of Orban in Hungary and the ‘law and justice’ in Poland; in the left of Maduro and Ortega. The statements of former presidents Frei and Lagos mention several other matters, which I share”, he expressed.

considered some proposals

However, Arriagada valued some proposals of the text such as the “social democratic state of rights, the centrality of human rightsgender parity, recognition of indigenous peoples, rights of sexual minorities, end of supramajoritarian laws, new forms of popular participation”

“Economically, end of the subsidiary State, autonomy of the Central Bank, support the right to property, although they are very questionable the chapters of the waters and the lands that will be claimed by the native peoples. Both can affect hundreds of thousands of small and medium landowners, not large forestry companies or large mining companies,” he added.

Called to Boric

Given all this, he called President Gabriel Boric to work on a formula to address the constituent discussion from September 5.

“It must express a real commitment to those salvageable things in the proposal. It is clear that the right must have a prominent role in the generation of the new Constitution, it represents just over a third of the country’s electorate. But in the next 60 days you must clearly state what you are available for; statements are not enough. And avoid three fatal mistakes. One is to try to revive the Constitution that is dead, another is to demand that Parliament resolve the new Constitution, forgetting that 80% of the country spoke once morest it. And the third thing, the right must recognize that for the first time in 40 years it has a litter of first-rank political intellectuals, it would be a mistake not to listen to them, ”he argued.