A polling station in the national stadium in the Chilean capital Santiago will be prepared on Saturday. Image AFP
The plan to revise the constitution emerged in 2019, when Chileans took to the streets en masse due to increased public transport prices, high inequality in the country and the deplorable state of public services. For the then conservative president Sebastián Piñera, the constitutional revision was an important gesture to the demonstrators. The old text was drafted in 1980, at a time when General Pinochet was taking Chile’s free market economy to its extreme.
History has now taken an unexpected turn. The text that will be voted on on Sunday is even slightly more conservative than the current constitution.
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Maartje Bakker is foreign editor of the Volkskrant. She previously worked in political editorial and was a correspondent in Spain, Portugal and Morocco.
After then-president Piñera presented his plan to replace the constitution, a popularly elected left-wing commission drafted a new text. The emphasis was on nature protection, social rights, equality of the sexes and rights of the original population. In particular, the proposed ‘plurinationality’, with self-government for indigenous peoples, led to resistance in Chile. Opponents complained that the country would be split up.
When the new basic principles were presented to Chileans in September 2022, they rejected them: 62 percent voted against, only 38 percent in favor.
Once again a constitution committee was elected, but now the radical right predominated. This is reflected in the text that will be voted on today: the right to private property and strict rules regarding immigration are central. The text also explicitly states that ‘life not yet born is protected’. Opponents of the constitutional amendment fear that it will make abortion impossible.
Little enthusiasm
After the first failed attempt, there is no longer much enthusiasm for constitutional revision. While last year there was a fanatical campaign for or against the constitutional revision, with concerts and large gatherings, it is now more subdued.
This is partly because the proposed new constitution differs less from the current one, Claudia Heiss, a political scientist at the University of Chile, told Reuters. “Either we keep the 1980 constitution, or we vote for a constitution that reaffirms what is already there,” she says. “This will not solve the problems that caused the social unrest.”
According to the latest opinion polls, 38 percent of Chileans are in favor and 46 percent against the new constitution. Left-wing President Gabriel Boric, a former student leader, is a supporter of the reform process, but not of the text now drafted by the ultra-right.
Referendum against left-wing President Boric
Meanwhile, opposition leader José Antonio Kast is trying to turn the election into a kind of referendum for or against Boric’s government. The young president’s popularity is waning, partly due to the stagnant economy and corruption within Boric’s party.
If this new constitution does not pass, Boric does not want to make a third attempt. He then plans to make changes to the current text, for example by more firmly anchoring environmental rights.
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2023-12-17 09:19:09
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