By María M. Mur
Santiago, Chile, Mar 6 (EFE).– As he took in 2022, a young President Gabriel Boric declared: «If Chile was the cradle of neoliberalism, it will also be its tomb,» promising profound reforms and announcing the arrival of a new left highly critical of the social democracy that governed during the transition.
At just 36 years old, the former student leader became Chile’s youngest president, coming to power surrounded by his fellow students from the university struggles, with the support of the Communist Party and the center-left forces, and amidst the social demands of the 2019 protests.
»(His presidency) will be remembered as a government that came in with a foundational project and ended up following a more social-democratic line,» Rodrigo Arello of Universidad del Desarrollo told EFE.
On Friday, days before leaving La Moneda Palace, the leader of the Broad Front concluded his term with some social progress, but many unfulfilled promises.
He will leave with a consistent 30% approval rating and a general feeling that he failed to address the main concerns of the citizens cited in the polls: crime and economic slowdown.
»Boric misread the priorities of Chileans and the moment the country was going through, which, after the social uprising, was not seeking abrupt changes,» Arello told EFE.
Claudia Heiss of Universidad de Chile explained that «he inherited a country with an unprecedented social, economic, and political crisis since the return to democracy and managed to stabilize it.»
His main errors «were related to inexperience, especially at the beginning,» she added.
A new Constitution: Boric’s great defeat
His honeymoon was short-lived. In September 2022, six months after reaching the presidency, he received a blow: the leftist proposal to change the Constitution, in effect since the dictatorship, was overwhelmingly rejected.
After the defeat, he sacrificed some of his university colleagues and gave more space to the traditional center-left.
For Lucía Dammert, a sociologist at the University of Santiago who was Boric’s chief advisor during those first months, «Chile changed before the eyes of a government that failed to be 100% in tune.»
»The public demanded things that historically haven’t been at the center of the left’s attention, such as security,» Dammert added.
Another of his most resounding defeats was the rejection in Congress of an ambitious tax reform with which he sought to finance his social agenda.
Better image abroad than at home
Despite lacking a parliamentary majority, Boric managed to pass legislation such as the 40-hour workweek, a minimum wage increase to nearly 600 dollars, the mining royalty, and a partial pension reform, which raised pensions by 35%, arguably his most valued achievement.
«His main economic legacy is handing over a normalized economy after the social unrest and the pandemic. Inflation is under control, but growth is moderate,» Carlos Smith of the Universidad del Desarrollo told EFE.
An admirer of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and José Mujica, Boric has amassed more political capital abroad than at home, thanks primarily to his strong condemnation of Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua.
“Boric also chose a democratic path and built bridges with the opposition to pass laws that improve the lives of Chileans. This was more valued abroad than at home because it coincided with a global process of right-wing radicalization,” Heiss added.
Boric 2.0?
Boric will hand over power on March 11 to his nemesis: former far-right congressman José Antonio Kast, who lost four years ago.
According to Arello, Kast’s victory “cannot be explained without a government that failed to prioritize citizens’ main concerns.”
“The main challenge for the left in Chile and around the world is to avoid being perceived as parties of academic elites who know what needs to be done but lack popular support,” Dammert stated.
Boric will leave office at 40, and although he hasn’t announced his plans, analysts agree that he still has a long political career ahead of him and that, perhaps, in four years, he will aspire to the presidency again. EFE
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