<nettime> Defeat for the right may presage real change in Chile

[Felix Stalder <felix@openflows.com>]

[The entire process to replace the Pinochet (aka extremely neo-liberal) 
constitution is quite unusual and an outcome of mass protest just before 
the oviduct-shutdowns. An independent assembly (which has been selected 
now) has one year to draft an new constitution which will tend be put to 
a binding public vote. And apparently, there is appetite for real 
change. Does anybody have first-hand impressions of this? Felix]



https://www.laprensalatina.com/defeat-for-the-right-may-presage-real-change-in-chile/

Santiago, May 17 (EFE).- The poor performance by right-wing parties in 
last weekend’s elections for an assembly to draft a new constitution 
creates possibilities for deep structural change in Chile.

The rightist bloc, largely made up of the parties in President Sebastian 
Piñera’s ruling coalition, won only 37 of the 155 seats in the body.

When the assembly convenes in late June or early July, the 48 
independents will be the largest group, followed by the left (28) and 
center-left (25).

Another 17 seats will be occupied by representatives of Chile’s 
indigenous people.

Given that most of the independents have expressed progressive views, no 
one would be surprised to see them work with the left, center-left and 
indigenous delegates toward a new charter that favors social justice, 
women’s rights and the environment.

Santiago resident Marcela Acevedo told Efe Monday that she expected 
favorable results from “the eruption of the independents.”

“We don’t want the same people as always and that can be seen reflected 
in the voting,” she said.

Another inhabitant of the capital, Fernando Gomez, said he hoped to see 
the constituent assembly conduct its business in a “focused and calm 
way” to make possible the “deeper changes that Chile is seeking.”

Under the rules governing the process, each proposed article of the new 
constitution must be approved by a super-majority of two-thirds of the 
delegates.

That requirement is likely to make complex, many-sided negotiations the 
rule for the assembly, which is supposed to begin work by the start of July.

“A constitution does not have to be of the left, it has to be a 
constitution that represents the majority of Chileans,” attorney Daniel 
Stingo, the largest vote-getter among the delegates, said after the 
results were announced.

Though he is a member of the leftist Democratic Revolution party, Stingo 
ran for the constituent assembly as an independent.

The convention has 12 months to draft a constitution that will then be 
submitted for approval by voters in a referendum sometime in 2022.

But before a single article has been proposed, the Chilean investor 
class has cast a massive vote of no-confidence in the process.

The Santiago stock market’s benchmark index plunged 9.6 percent within 
minutes of the start of trading on Monday, while the value of the peso 
experienced its biggest drop against the dollar since November 2019, 
when the nationwide protests that ultimately forced the Piñera 
government to open the door to the constitutional convention were at 
their peak.






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