“To the northern regions I say: Be careful with the new Constitution because the regions where the territories where we won are, belonged to races originating from Bolivia and Peru, so be careful what you are doing. Stop listening to the fools.”
With that tone and a lot of activity in networks, the economist and former presidential candidate Franco Parisi -always from the United States, where he has lived for regarding 7 years- has politically reinvented himself as a critical spokesman for the new Constitution.
Through interviews with different digital media, and especially in the “Bad Boys” program that is broadcast via YouTube, the former president has criticized various points of the new constitutional charter. One of them was related to the territories in the north of the country, an area in which Parisi obtained a high number of votes in the November presidential election, in which he reached the third majority with a 12.90%. In detail, in the region of Arica and Parinacota it reached 28.65% of the votes; in Tarapacá, 27.39% and in Antofagasta, 33.99%. If in the first two he beat Gabriel Boric, but not José Antonio Kast, in Antofagasta he beat both contenders. In Atacama -where he got 23.98%- he beat Boric and Kast, but came second behind DC Yasna Provoste.
On May 24, in the same program in which he spoke regarding the “fools”, Parisi also made a warning regarding plurinationality: “If that is in the Chilean Constitution, Evo Morales is going to take a plane to The Hague, Holland, and he is going to ask immediately that it be revised, because if we say that we are a multinational country, they are going to be able to claim everything”.
A similar diagnosis was made on May 10, in another program “Bad Boys” in which the conventional Rocío Cantuarias (ind. right) participated.
“Minister Mario Marcel’s words that he saw no economic risk in what the Constituent Assembly is writing scared everyone. Because the guy was supposed to be a technician, that he wasn’t going to lie and he lied to us. There is risk,” he stated.
Is Parisi’s position the position of the store that led him as president, the People’s Party (PDG), its six deputies and 22 regional councilors?
“Franco gives his opinion, he has his program, but there are no party guidelines in his statements. Regardless of everything, Franco is our natural leader and no one can doubt that,” says deputy Rubén Oyarzo. The parliamentarians of the store agree that, although Parisi is its natural leader, that thanks to his figure the party was able to grow and establish itself and that his opinion matters, what he may say does not necessarily represent the final position that the party will take. PDG.
The institutional position will be defined on July 15, ten days following the final text is delivered following the Harmonization stage, in a meeting that will be held by the PDG board of directors – headed by Luis Moreno -, together with its bench of deputies and the Logan constituent. As in the second presidential round, before that, a digital consultation will be held to ask the militancy what position to take.
“We are going to present several capsules and programs, and several teams are studying the draft, to educate our militants, followers and adherents. That is what we are currently at. We will meet more or less on July 15 and there we will more or less give an official position as a party”, says deputy Víctor Pino.
Meanwhile, the PDG will promote different types of information sessions on the content of the draft for its militancy and adherents. “There will be two Bad Boys a week: one only on the Constitution, which would take place on Thursdays, and another with guests talking regarding the contingency, which would take place on Tuesdays. In addition, our constituent Rodrigo Logan will also be running his own show. Obviously with experts to help people understand what is written in the draft means”explains Pedro Gubernatti, host of the Bad Boys program. In it there has already been a veritable procession of conventionalists and political leaders, such as former Segegob minister Jaime Bellolio (UDI), deputy Jorge Alessandri (UDI), conventionalist Martín Arrau (UDI) and Rodrigo Logan (ind.), deputy Jaime Araya (Ind – PPD), the lawyer Axel Kaiser, the conventional Bernardo Fontaine (RN) and the writer Cristián Warnken, head of the “Yellows for Chile” movement.
“The most important thing today is to clarify doubts and inform people. We must first educate, inform and resolve doubts and listen to our adherents. Today, out of respect for our people, we cannot make a statement even without having all the knowledge”, indicates the head of the PDG deputies, Yovana Ahumada.
Along the same lines, the deputy Gaspar Rivas points out that “it is important to carry out the informative campaign to militancy and adherents, more than anything to know their opinion: whether to approve, reject, simply reject or reject to reform.”
