Neither approve the constitutional proposal nor stay with the current one Carta Magnainherited from the dictatorship and partially reformed in democracy: the option of convening a new constitutional process, the so-called “third way”, gains strength in Chile.
The issue had been hovering over the debate for some time, but it was settled definitively last week, when the president Gabriel Boric He said that, in case the new text is rejected, he will promote the drafting of a new Constitution.
“to win the ‘Rejection‘ (to the new Constitution), we are going to have to prolong this process for another year and a half (…) Everything is going to have to be discussed again,” he said in Chilevisión.
Despite the fact that almost 80% of Chileans decided in a plebiscite in October 2020 to change the new Constitutionthe polls have been showing for weeks that the “Rejection” option seems to be in the majority.
AND THE MECHANISM?
The convention in charge of drafting the text, made up of 154 mostly progressive independent citizens, started with high expectations, but was losing adherents due to internal friction, scandals that splashed a group linked to the 2019 outbreak and several extreme proposals that generated much controversy despite the fact that they were not approved.
If he “Rejection” ends up prevailing in the plebiscite of September 4, the only clear scenario is that the current Magna Carta, promulgated in 1980 by Augusto Pinochet and criticized by a part of society for favoring the privatization of basic services, remains in force.
However, there is consensus that the constituent experience cannot end there and that the social desires that triggered the protests three years ago remain unfulfilled.
“A third way is necessary because although the new Constitution has not managed to arouse broad support, the demand for important changes is still present,” Rodrigo Pérez, from the Institute of Society Studies, told Efe.
The crux of the matter is the mechanism. There are those who believe that the fastest thing is for Congress to reform the current Magna Carta. Others, like Boric, are committed to electing a new constitutional convention on the basis of the current process.
The possibility of calling another plebiscite to decide the type of constituent body or even choose a “committee of experts” has also been raised.
“The reform that enabled this process is valid until September. I think a new pact like the one on November 15 would have to be reached, something impossible in the current political context,” Claudia Heiss, from the University of Chile.
Heiss was one of the experts who participated in that November 2019 parliamentary pact to launch the constitutional process as a way to calm the massive protests.
Then, Chile was mired in its worst crisis since the end of the dictatorship. The situation today, according to Heiss, is different: “If the “Rejection” wins, the right will come out stronger and will try to minimize changes and maintain the ‘status quo’ of the 1980 law.”
For Claudio Elórtegui-Gómez, from the Catholic University of Valparaíso, “the most coherent path is a new convention that works from the proposal already presented, taking into account the most moderate proposals.”
BACHELET IN FAVOR, FREI AGAINST
The right and part of the center left will vote against finding the new text “radical”, while the left is inclined to give it the green light, although many believe it is not perfect and needs changes.
This is the case of the former president Michelle Bachelet, who on Wednesday quoted Pablo Milanés: “It’s not perfect, but it’s close to what I always dreamed of,” said the current High Commissioner for HIM for Human Rights at a conference in Peru.
Of the other former presidents, only Eduardo Frei has said he will vote against. Ricardo Lagos has been ambiguous, but in a letter he acknowledged that neither the current Carta Magna nor the new proposal “generate consensus”, while Sebastian Pinera he keeps silent, although it is assumed that he will reject it.
“The new process is not defined by the president or by the result of 2020. It is defined by the citizens in a new vote and the legislators should be skilled enough to propose it now,” said Mauricio Morales, from the University of Talca.
For Morales, the new process should not last more than half a year because “it is not starting from a blank page” and both aspects of the new text and the current Constitution must be incorporated.
The new standard declares Chile a social state of law, multinational, regional and ecological, and enshrines rights such as universal public health, free education, better pensions and access to housing and water.
The right to voluntary interruption of pregnancy, the multinational nature of the State and the elimination of the Senate are some of the issues included in the text that generate the most controversy.
José Couso, from the University of Utrecht, believes, however, that the “Rejection” will generate more uncertainty because “nobody” “guarantees that the negotiations to start a new process do not get bogged down and that social anger will explode again later”.
“Approving a Constitution to which many have specific objections but which can be reformed is a path that is at least more predictable,” he added to Efe. EFE
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