(Santiago) Developed for a year, the draft new Constitution is officially delivered Monday to Chilean President Gabriel Boric. The text, which establishes new social rights, will then have to go through the referendum stage in a polarized country.
Posted yesterday at 11:15 p.m.
In the wake of the surrender, the Constituent Assembly, made up of 154 independent citizens or affiliated with political parties, will be dissolved, just one year after starting its work, on July 4, 2021.
Then the text will be submitted to a referendum with compulsory vote on September 4: 15 million Chileans will have to say whether they accept (“Apruebo”) or reject (“Rechazo”) this new Constitution. If the rejection prevails, the current fundamental law, dating from the time of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), will remain in force.
Seen as a way out of the political crisis of the 2019 uprising for more social equality, the constitutional project consecrates through its 388 articles the main demands of the demonstrators.
In the 1er article, Chile is thus defined as a “social and democratic State of law”, “plurinational, intercultural and ecological”. “Its democracy is equal” and “it recognizes as intrinsic and inalienable values the dignity, freedom, substantial equality of human beings and their indissoluble relationship with nature”.
“I think that we have responded to social demands, to the aspirations of citizens”, welcomes Barbara Sepulveda, elected to the Constituent Assembly for the Communist Party, to AFP. This is a “historic breakthrough in terms of […] guarantee of social rights, which is also imbued with feminism from start to finish”, defends Alondra Carillo, of the Large Front (left).
Other Constituents, on the right of the political scale, are more reserved on the process. Cristian Monckeberg, elected from the right – who with 37 seats out of 154 had no blocking majority – believes that the opportunity has been “missed” to “build something that unites and does not divide” the country.
“It has not been the easy and friendly process that we would have liked or dreamed of. There were strong tensions”, recognizes the writer and journalist Patricio Fernandez, elected to the Constituent Assembly among the independents who, with 104 seats, were the most numerous.
Disinformation
In addition to the lively debates, the long months of work were marked by the circulation of numerous infoxes to the public on the articles being discussed. The two-thirds needed to vote on the articles, however, forced dialogue and made it possible to moderate positions.
If the text is approved, it will put Chile at the forefront in several areas. The right to abortion will notably be enshrined in the fundamental law.
“It is a Constitution from another era. I am convinced that if the Constitution is approved, when we look back at the process (…) we will see it with more tenderness and admiration than we see it today,” said Patricio Fernandez.
Totally equal, the Constituent Assembly also had 17 seats reserved for representatives of Chilean indigenous peoples, including the Mapuches, the majority native people in the country.
For the Mapuche lawyer Natividad Llanquileo, elected to the Assembly, the constitutional process represented “the most democratic space we have known throughout the history of this country”.
In addition to the fact that the text recognizes the existence of various peoples within the Chilean nation, it grants a certain autonomy to indigenous institutions, particularly in matters of justice.
On several occasions in recent weeks, the young left-wing president, Gabriel Boric, has reiterated his support for the draft Constitution, considering that the current one, adopted in 1980 in the midst of a military regime and which limits the intervention of the State, represented an “obstacle” to any fundamental social reform.
Two months before the referendum, however, many polls indicate that the “no” (Rechazo) could win. But the final text has not yet been released in full and some Chileans admit that they do not have a definitive opinion on the text.
“The supporters of the ‘yes’ must convince that the text will really change people’s lives, while those of the ‘no’ will have to attract more moderate sectors behind them”, summarizes for AFP Claudio Fuentes, political scientist at the University Diego Portales. The official campaign begins on Wednesday.