Chile: Santiago has a communist mayor for the first time
The Communist Party's elected mayor of Santiago, Iraci Hassler, during a visit to a popular district during his electoral campaign in Santiago, May 20, 2021. AFP - MARTIN BERNETTI
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2 min
In Santiago de Chile, for the first time, the mayor of the city will be a Communist.
Irací Hassler, a 30-year-old economist, feminist and unknown to the general public, defeated the outgoing right-wing mayor, who came from a political dynasty.
Elected in mid-May, at the same time as the Constituent Assembly, she takes office on Monday.
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With our correspondent in Santiago,
Justine Fontaine
To everyone's surprise, in mid-May, a communist city councilor, aged only 30, won the city hall of Santiago in front of the outgoing mayor, on the right.
The Constituent Assembly election took place at the same time, and these
polls
were marked by a strong breakthrough by the independents and the alternative left coalition, including the Communist Party.
For Irací Hassler, his election at the head of the capital is also the result of
the social movement
of October 2019 against inequalities in the country: "
We are indebted to the people who mobilized and who today say that we do not want more of this neoliberal management which has subjected all aspects of our life to the laws of the market,
”she declared.
Coming from a bourgeois family, Irací Hassler became involved in politics during the student movement for free education in 2011. Feminist, she symbolizes the young generation of the Chilean Communist Party.
And she already imagines her comrades governing the country:
“
Our victory in Santiago undoubtedly means that the left and social organizations will conquer the presidency of the country, at this historic moment so important.
"
And indeed, the candidate of the Communist Party, a mayor of a popular commune in the capital, is one of the favorites, for the moment, of the presidential election scheduled for November.
And this Sunday will take place the inaugural session of the Chilean Constituent Assembly, elected to replace the Constitution inherited from the Pinochet dictatorship.
The constituent will have one year to write a new text.
►
See also: Chile: towards a new Constitution
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