Monday, November 8, 2021 is a day that will be marked in the history of the National Congress. One that had as the main protagonist the deputy Jaime Naranjo (PS), who dispatched a 15-hour speech in the Chamber of the Chamber of Deputies and Deputies to defend the constitutional accusation against President Sebastián Piñera, generating a host of reactions, memes and even the creation of a Twitter account (@naranjotermino).
“I have not eaten anything. This is a fast that I have done for the justice of our country,” he said during a 20-minute break from his extensive speech in the Lower House.
Naranjo intended to read the 1,300 pages of the accusatory libel, a strategy with which he sought to extend the session until 00:00 on Tuesday, with the aim that Deputy Giorgio Jackson – in preventive quarantine for being close contact with Gabriel Boric – would fulfill his time of confinement in order to reach Congress in the early morning, and vote the constitutional accusation against the President, thus obtaining the 78 votes necessary for its approval.
Wearing a mask and drinking water, the PS parliamentarian was flanked by the deputies Carmen Hertz (PC), Marisela Santibáñez, Maya Fernández (PS) and Camila Vallejo (PC). Another curious fact that occurred in the session was the moment when the deputy and doctor Juan Luis Castro (PS) checked his health, when Naranjo had been speaking for more than five hours.
“He has been talking for five and a half hours, he has eaten some cereals, water (…), I took his vital signs, he has a normal heart rate of 70 and a 14/8 blood pressure, it is within the normal range, a person he is healthy, and therefore he is fine (…). I will continue to be attentive, because he asked me to be close, “said Castro.
And after 15 hours of exposure, Deputy Jackson arrived at the Congress in Valparaíso after 01:00 in the morning, thus fulfilling the proposed objective of gathering the necessary votes to approve the constitutional impeachment.
With this, the opposition managed to give a signal of unity two weeks before the first round of the presidential election. The miscalculation of the ruling party, by not opening to the change of date of the accusation and not allowing the telematic voting, made all eyes were on the more than 14 hours of intervention of the deputy Naranjo, who was the first trend on Twitter for several hours, and who was seen surrounded by several opposition parliamentarians.
At the end of his speech in Congress, Naranjo tweeted: “After this long presentation that I have made to guarantee that we have the votes to approve the constitutional impeachment, I want to bear witness that this Parliament is capable of putting an end to the abuses.”
But the truth is that the uncertainty remains, since, in an unexpected move, President Piñera’s lawyer, Jorge Gálvez, began the defense of the President against the constitutional accusation. It is believed that his intervention could last until 10:00 am
“With what we have experienced today and the way in which the accusation was prepared, improvised for the purpose of locating its discussion a few days before an election, how can we not understand that politics is an activity that has a bad reputation,” he said.
Jackson’s role
Although the main protagonist of the film was Jaime Naranjo, the deputy Giorgio Jackson (RD), who from the beginning was the basis of Naranjo’s strategy because it was the 78th vote, the magic number to approve the accusation. Through a video on social networks, Jackson himself confirmed that he would be in the Chamber. “Today I am on my last day of quarantine, so I am fully available to fulfill my parliamentary work when this quarantine ends,” he announced on Monday.
Hours before, the parliamentarian justified the libel and pointed out that “this constitutional accusation is about ending the impunity of a President who has, time and again, put personal and economic interests above those of the country and the environment. to end the impunity of a President charged today by the courts for possible crimes of bribery and incompatible negotiation “.
The controversy comes from deputy Sabag
Jorge Sabag’s arrival in Congress was not without controversy. The DC deputy entered the Chamber with the pending result of a PCR test, since the parliamentarian himself stated that he had had symptoms that could be associated with COVID-19.
The situation generated annoyance in the ruling party. Deputy Luciano Cruz-Coke said that “what we would like to know is if the health authority has had contact with Deputy Sabag, to know what is the status of that PCR that he would have done.”
“It seems to me that it is a huge irresponsibility to expose the people who work in this building to a possible contagion (of COVID-19),” added the parliamentarian.
“I call on the Congressional table to take all the necessary measures so that Deputy Sabag, hopefully, can first certify that he is in perfect health conditions before entering to broadcast or join the hemicycle,” Deputy Evópoli closed .
For his part, the UDI deputy Juan Antonio Coloma pointed out that it is “extremely serious for a member of parliament to try to break the law, who believes that he cannot comply with the legal quarantines.”
“It seems very serious to us that he enters, between roosters and midnight, hidden from Parliament, and for this reason we will not only request the due sanitary summary (…) but we also make a public call to understand that what happens in Parliament is to skip the law, “added Coloma.
Likewise, Deputy Andrés Longton said that “it is unpresentable that a deputy of the Republic is beyond the health protocols that any citizen in Chile must and is obliged to comply with.”
Finally, the deputy Diego Schalper spoke: “Deputy Sabag, no one is above the law. Deputy Ascencio, you are not above the law either, and what you did today at the entrance to make a ruse to circumvent a sanitary control, it is breaking the law, and I hold you responsible in advance if this person ultimately suffers from a disease that affects the rest, I hold you responsible for that situation. “
Presidential candidate reactions
The presidential candidates did not turn a blind eye to this marathon day in Congress. On the right, Sebastián Sichel (Chile Podemos +) described the situation as “a comedy of the absurd.” “1,300 leaves? 13 hours speaking? Democracy is serious. This, by deputy Naranjo and the left, is a comedy of the absurd,” he said, adding that it will offer “a barbecue for those who are capable of listening to the 1,300 leaves “.
Meanwhile, the candidate José Antonio Kast (Christian Social Front) reacted on Twitter pointing out that it is “another sad spectacle in the National Congress. The usual bad politicians, destroying the little and nothing that remains of the country’s institutional framework.” “This is the unstable Chile promoted by Gabriel Boric and company,” he said.
In a different tone, the presidential standard-bearers of the opposition pointed to the bottom of the libel against the President and squared with his approval. In this context, the candidate Gabriel Boric (I Approve Dignity) stated that “a President who evades taxes and devastates nature cannot go unpunished. The ruling party refused options for a remote vote, but I hope, for the good of Chile, that this accusation be approved and go to the Senate. “
Without referring to the commented intervention of deputy Jaime Naranjo, Senator Yasna Provoste (New Social Pact) expressed that it is necessary to review the antecedents very carefully. In his opinion, “it is a shame for our country and the accusation must be reviewed with the utmost seriousness.”
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