MONTEVIDEO (Sputnik) – In Chile the social debate takes place in the social movements and the action of the politicians is reduced to a minimum, warned in dialogue with Sputnik, the former presidential candidate for the Progressive Party, Marco Enriquez-Ominami.
The protests began on October 18, 2019 with a series of citizen demonstrations against the economic system, the price of basic services, the Constitution and the management of President Sebastián Piñera.
Although between January and February the violence of the protests has diminished, the authorities fear that the riots will intensify in March, because new demonstrations have already been announced in social networks.
President Sebastián Piñera said he does not rule out declaring the state of emergency again and taking the military to the streets before the possibility of demonstrations intensifying.
On the other hand, Ominami considered that the protests “are going to be increasingly increasing”, because the political agreement between the ruling party and a certain sector of the opposition, held in November, was “badly done”.
Waiver Request
On the other hand, Ominami considered that Piñera must resign because it does not guarantee coexistence in the country.
“Sebastián Piñera does not guarantee neither social peace nor coexistence and he has to leave; there are no conditions for him to continue governing … When a president barely arbitrates, what function does he fulfill? If he does not guarantee peace, order or the debate, neither can enact laws, nor legislative debates, nor can it make foreign policy, what would Piñera’s path be? Nothing, expect the protests to be bigger and bigger, I think he is a president that stresses Chilean society ” he expressed.
Ominami said the president has no empathy and does not create employment for the population, so it is a “symbol of the problem” in the country.
“The presidential monarchy of Chile is the most exacerbated in Latin America, since there is no federalism or vice president; in such a monarchical state, when the king is paralyzed, the country is also paralyzed,” he added.
He considered that Piñera’s resignation would “calm the debate”, which is “polarized” and generates “a lot of violence.”
“The debate is so polarized that those who want social justice and those who want peace appear as if they were contradictory; that has a solution: first to start the referee, imagine that if this were a match of what you want, there is a referee that he does not want to arbitrate and that he also only believes in one of the sides, that he does not even guarantee clear rules to be able to debate; with all that you cannot move forward, “he said.
Constitution
In April of this year there will be a plebiscite for Chileans to decide whether or not they want to change the current Constitution and the method by which they want to do so.
The magna Carta was adopted in 1980 and approved in a plebiscite the same year when there were no electoral records and without establishing any guarantee for the control of its transparency, as a result of which it has been constantly criticized due to its lack of legitimacy.
Ominami said the constitutional reform is a breakthrough, but warned that it does not guarantee social peace.
“If we think of Chile as if it were a house, it is built on land that can be flooded; if we stay as we are we are going to flood; we have to change; it is true that the new house you want to build is not certain that it’s going to be sensational, but I do know that where we are we can’t be worse, we have to get out of the swamp we are in and the only way to unlock this is a new Constitution, “he said.
Left drive
On the other hand, Ominami said that there is a good chance that all the left and center parties will join in a single electoral option for the next elections because they share the same opinions on essential issues.
“I think that the force of the facts will unite us in a single electoral option; in addition the demand of the moment imposes it on us, it is ridiculous that we are not united if we completely agree on the essentials,” he said.
The leader considered that for the first time in 30 years all the center and left parties agree that a referendum should be held, that the Constitution should be reformed and that Piñera are “clear opponents.”
“We already have three major agreements, what we have to deal with now is that we move forward in an electoral unit; I am dedicated to that, so that there is an electoral political electoral unit between the social movement and its leaders,” he said.
He also said he will not be a candidate in the next elections to foster union between the center-left parties.
“I am not going to stand for the elections, nor as a senator, I am convinced that I can contribute in another way, I collaborate in Latin American unity, in regional integration and in Chile I am going to military,” said Ominami.
Judgment
On February 25, the oral trial preparation hearing began in which Ominami is accused of alleged financing of his 2013 election campaign with resources from the Brazilian construction company OAS that were not rendered to the Electoral Service (Servel).
Ominami told Sputnik that this accusation is false and that the trial he faces was aimed at curbing it in the elections.
“I have no idea that there was a decision from a part of the political system, which used justice to affect my rights,” he said.
He said that one of the prosecutors who interviewed him is married to the Minister of Justice of Piñera and that years later he became the president’s advisor.
“Earn $ 10,000 a month, the other prosecutor acknowledged receiving job offers while they interrogated me and the other prosecutor has links with Michelle Bachelet [2014-2018]”he said.
The Prosecutor asks for nine years in prison for Ominami; his ex-campaign advisor Cristián Warner is also charged in this investigation, against whom four years were requested.