With standing applause, the former president was received this Friday followingnoon sebastian pinera upon his arrival at the launch of the Libertad y Democracia group, where he was together with the former presidents of Bolivia and Colombia, Jorge Quiroga and Andrés Pastrana, respectively.
The new international instance was promoted by the former Chilean president, which began to take shape a few months ago. “Today’s topic is facing the great threats to freedom and democracy. It is necessary to come together to defend them,” explained Piñera, arguing that the loss of these values has occurred more because of the lack of defense of them.
There he was accompanied electronically by other ex-presidents of the right, such as the Spanish Mariano Rajoy y Jose Maria Aznarin addition to Felipe Calderon (Mexico), Mauricio Macri (Argentina) e ivan duke (Colombia).
Thus, the body – which also includes the presidents in office Guillermo Lasso (Ecuador) and Mario Abdo (Paraguay) – became a new international bet of the ex-president, who has had past experience of promoting similar initiatives for the region, for example, during his second administration he promoted the idea of Prosur.
The goal is for the Libertad y Democracia group to continue meeting in the future, and have members who are not only former presidents, but who may be politicians, academics, civil society, and social organizations.
An international attack that occurs at a time when Piñera has been reactivated politically, and that in the sector is seen as a response to left-wing blocs such as the Puebla Group and the Sao Paulo Forum.
In his speech, Piñera began by reviewing countries where freedoms have been lost. In this sense, she explained that previously, one of the causes of this was coups d’état, but today it is due to the loss of values in institutions and threats such as “populism.”
He also reported problems for democracy such as the weakening of institutions, corruption problems, and the distancing of the political class.
“Many of these threats are present today and that is why this group was born to organize ourselves better (…). Today freedom and democracy are at serious risk, facing many enemies”, he said, adding that as a continent “we have been going backwards for 17 years, of negative advances, of an autumn or winter of democracy”.
Along these lines, Piñera cited cases of “stagnant and oppressive” dictatorships, giving Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua as examples.
Almost at the end of his speech, former President Piñera addressed the constituent process of the extinct Convention and the current scenario.
“I want to remember that in Chile we were regarding to give a coup de grace to democracy with the constitutional project that the current government supported with such enthusiasm, and sometimes abusively,” he said.
And he added: “A project that in practice deals a mortal blow to democracy, starting by dividing our country into 11 nations plus the Chilean nation, by weakening the independence of the powers (…). They were mortal blows to the principles of democracy”.
The former head of state continued his speech and questioned the situation in which the country finds itself.
Thus, he assured that “this year in Chile has not been a good year. Growth fell to a quarter, inflation went to double digits, investment fell like a stone, wages are falling, insecurity skyrocketed.
Along these lines, he added that “that is why the commitment of youth is so important, but also the commitment of all of us.”
But he not only stopped there, but also addressed the immigration crisis and the position of the current administration of the President Gabriel Boric.
“The position held by a large part of the current government was different, it was ‘come all’, illegal or legal. The President himself said it, he promised rights above those Chileans have”, he stated.
Thus, too, he spoke of the difficulties of governing. “I told President Boric, when one is in the opposition it is easy (…) I told him that he is going to see what else is with the guitar,” he said, adding that “now we see that many things have had to be realized that they were wrong positions”.
Piñera finished off making a call to his sector. “I ask that the opposition be very firm, because this government is conducting in the wrong way,” she said.
The stage served as a meeting place for the piñerismo, since dozens of ex-collaborators of their government gathered at the Andrés Bello University -where the event was held. former ministers as Alberto Espina (Defending), Roberto Ampuero (External relationships), Raul Figueroa (Education), Jaime Bellolio (Segegob) were present, as well as relevant former advisors, such as Christian Larrouletand the former chief of staff of Piñera Magdalena Diaz.
Several former second-line collaborators or former heads of divisions also joined.
This at a time when the former president has been reactivated, and his rise in the polls has caused some to wonder if he will try to return to the Presidency for the third time, which, in any case, has been ruled out by Piñera himself.
