Between a Chilean right and an extreme right that rooted their foundations during the long years of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship, and that have remained either in power or very close to it later during the so-called return to democracy, and a left that exhibits difficulties when it comes to union, one can look for the reasons that at least explain why it has become so difficult to draft a new Constitution to replace the current one that, precisely, comes from those dark years in which all the norms and laws of that nation were violated.
Saying it is easy, but to understand it is complicated. The point is that the current Chilean Constitution was drafted and approved in 1980, that is, 43 years ago, in the midst of the dictatorship, and although there have been many attempts, few changes have been made.
With the coming to power of President Gabriel Boric, as representative of an alliance between the Frente Amplio - a leftist coalition created in 2017 - and the Communist Party, the call to draft a new Magna Carta gained strength.
The process has been more than complicated, and had its biggest stumbling block when 62% of voters were against a first constitutional proposal, submitted to plebiscite in September 2022.
Now, the ghost generated by the previous constituent process and the defeat of the forces led by the current president seem to mark a clear path to the predominance of right-wing and ultra-right ideas, at the time of elaborating the new project to be submitted to referendum next December.
In this case, the path may become more complex if the right wing imposes aspects sectors of the left wing disagree with, which could cause the failure of a new referendum at the polls.
One aspect to take into account will be that the president of the Republican Party, José Antonio Kast, the winning right-wing group this time, has always been opposed to changing the Constitution, considering that "Chile does not need it."
In the vote to elect the 51 council members who will draft the new Magna Carta project, the Republican Party obtained 43% of the votes, which gives it 23 of the 51 council members. In addition, the conservative alliance Chile Seguro won 11 council members.
On the other hand, the pro-government and Unity for Chile coalition obtained only 28 % of the votes, that is to say, it will have 16 council members.
Translated by ESTI
