The mayor of Maipú took a few minutes to answer criticism for his appearance on a Mucho Gusto panel.
Last Tuesday morning Pleased to meet you had a political panel that left several ‘coletazos’. One in particular was quite notorious: the placement of José Antonio Neme to Mayor Tomás Vodanovic.
“Mayor, I do not agree with you, excuse me for saying. We are not in a problem of social coexistence, I believe that the majority of Chileans want to live together well. It is a minority that has kidnapped this country and that took advantage of Octobrism to do this”, the journalist said.
“You are not going to tell me that people who have been mistreated by the system are going to burn schools (…) That is a lack of respect for those people who have had problems since they were born and who are not burning schools , my dear Mayor Vodanovic,” he added.
At that time, the community chief defended his position: “I understand your anger, I think we all feel it. I agree, today we have phenomena, but we cannot ignore the global phenomenon that we are experiencing”.
Response on Twitter by Tomás Vodanovic
Hours following the program, Tomás Vodanovic wrote a disclaimer through his Twitter account, indicating that he spoke with Neme following the television space.
“I have received messages for an intervention by José Antonio Neme where he criticizes me for supposedly endorsing violence. It’s something I’ve never done, nor did I do today at #MuchoGusto. I do believe that we have a problem of violence as a country, which manifests itself in many ways,” he said.
“For example, in aggressive and unmotivated placements in the media that contribute nothing to the climate of dialogue that we need. I appreciate that José Antonio took the time to apologize to me. We can all improve to contribute to the construction of a better country”, he added.
I have received messages for an intervention by José Antonio Neme @jananeme where he criticizes me for supposedly endorsing violence. It is something that I have never done, nor did I do today in #Pleased to meet you. I do believe that we have a problem of violence as a country, which manifests itself in many ways.
— Tomás Vodanovic (@TomasVodanovic) May 24, 2022
It should be noted that, as a result of that intersection, terms such as Neme and Vodanovic became a trending topic last Tuesday.