Next Monday, technical work will begin in the National Congress, to define the framework of the new constituent process, where there would already be an agreement to elect a second Constitutional Convention and establish an exit plebiscite. The opposition called for taking time to assess the effects of Sunday’s result, and with parity as something assured, the role of experts and the ‘blank page’ debate are -for now- the main knots.
With the majority consensus for a new Constitutional Convention and a political-technical meeting for next Monday, party presidents and caucus leaders from across the political spectrum, had the first constituent dialogue in the Senate.
Also almost clear that there will be no entry plebisciteand that there will be a parity election, but not much else. What will be the role of the experts, what space will the independents have, how long should the Convention last and how much longer should it be elected? These are some of the questions that will be part of the talks in September.
The president of the Chamber of Deputies, Raúl Soto, said that there will be a technical design that will seek to shape the main conditions of the new roadmap.
“We are going to put all the diversity of opinions, proposals and ideas on the table (…) and on Monday we will be able to sit down with a technical and political design of how we can establish that consensus to reach agreements,” Soto said.
There are already some proposals on the table. Senators from the PS and the PPD are the ones showing the most advanced work: They pose as maximum term September 2023so that there is a new Constitution before the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the dictatorship.
First approaches
pose elect 100 memberscon closed lists -where you vote for the block and not individually- and “zebra” type (woman, man, woman, man), that guarantee a joint election, establishing a six-month schedule for the operation, and an election before the end of this year.
In the opposition, they say they will not remove any option, but they remain without showing their cards. The president of Renovación Nacional, Francisco Chahuán, says that only the framework of the process has been discussed.
It is hoped that this technical commission will allow “drawing the borders without entering into the definitions of the mechanism yet, because there are different ideas regarding how the constituent process might be approached,” said Chahuán.
In the Communist Party, they ask not to “pretend to start from scratch”, remembering the constitutional process that Michelle Bachelet began, and not to completely discard the text rejected on Sunday.
This was raised first at the meeting and then to the media by the president of the Communist Party, Guillermo Teillier, assuring that Sunday’s vote does not mean that citizens are once morest all the proposals.
“This process began by mandate of President Bachelet and it might be resumed because it was seen that the only way out of the crisis (of October 2019) was a new constitution,” Teillier commented, adding that those who rejected it now “did not reject the text in its totality and that allows us to talk”.
Republican Party disagrees
In the Republican Party they say that it is not “obvious” that the citizenry wants a new constitution.
Senator Rojo Edwards said the same day he left the presidency of his party, that the entry plebiscite does not serve to eternally validate new constitutional proposals.
“The people of Chile, with almost 8 million votes, voted Rejection. The question is from where it can be concluded that the Chilean people want a new convention”, stated Edwards.
The Minister of Segpres, Ana Lya Uriarte, closed a day of hugs and celebrations, with her arrival at the meeting in the Jaime Guzmán room on the third floor of the Senate.
Upon his departure, he emphatically stated what the role of the government will be: They will provide technical support, but they will not ask for deadlines, nor will they give their opinion.
“We are going, as a Government, to accompany this process with full willingness and the best of spirits, making available the expert and technical professionals who can provide background, information, reports, but we are not going to be issuing an opinion or entering the phase deliberative”, pointed out Uriarte.
The times
The pace of work also promises to be an issue. Since Monday morning, the presidents of Chile Vamos and parliamentarians from the sector have asked to ascertain the effects of Sunday’s result, and take the time necessary to arrive at a formula that conforms to all sectors.
This conspires once morest the window of opportunity that government forces observe, in what they recognize may be “the last chance” for this generation to approve a text in democracy. The president of the Corporation stated that this will be a debate “slowly, but without pause”.