It seeks to develop an economic model that ends the imbalance in the distribution of wealth

Chilean President-elect Gabriel Borek is a "leftist" of a special kind

Borek has a special theory of judgment.

AFP

Although his extreme opponents see Chile as the new Venezuela or Cuba under his rule, Gabriel Borek, the president-elect at the head of a left-wing alliance, is leaning towards Europe to inspire a new economic model that guarantees the redistribution of wealth.

The aim of the campaign of denial led by the far-right before the second round of the elections last Sunday, was to strike fear in the minds of the undecided, by asserting that the alliance of the center-left with the Communist Party, could turn Chile into an authoritarian regime inspired by revolutionary socialism.

"The left only encourages poverty," Jose Antonio Caste said during his final campaign speech.

This poverty that has dragged Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba from which people are fleeing because this drug dictatorship brings nothing but poverty and misery.”

Indeed, voters interviewed by AFP, like retired Ricardo, 75, said they would vote against “communism,” or like schoolteacher Maria Luisa Guegios, 53, saying that “if there was no Pinochet (...) we would be like Venezuela today.” ».

Rodrigo Espinosa, a political science researcher at the Diego Portales University in Santiago, said: “This is a model for terrorist campaigns that are mainly carried out by the extreme right.

It is more about fake news than reality.”

For his part, economist Francisco Castaneda from the Universidad Mayor, told AFP from Chile that "Gabriel Borek tends to the left more than the traditional parties" that were in the government in Chile, but "he is not a communist."

Portales notes that "Gabriel Borek strongly condemned the violations of human rights in Venezuela or the state of democracy in Nicaragua."

He added that "more than any left-wing project in Latin America, such as that of Rafael Correa (Ecuador), Hugo Chavez (Venezuela) or Evo Morales (Bolivia), it embodies more European social democracy, like that of Podemos in Spain."

He continued, "His speech is clear: There is no rupture with the free market system, but a desire for greater regulation and greater state intervention in redistribution policies."

redistribution

Borek has always stressed that he wants to put an end to the excessive liberal model that governs Chile, after it has become one of the countries with the greatest social inequality in the world, and one percent of its rich own more than a quarter of its wealth, according to United Nations agencies.

The president-elect, the political heir to the social uprising of 2019, will have to put these demands into practice for a more equal society.

He says he wants to establish in Chile "something that is very clear in Europe: the guarantee of a welfare state in which everyone has the same rights, no matter how much money they have."

He therefore intends to rely on the ongoing constitutional convention.

"After drafting the new constitution, we will move from a free market state with few government controls, to a social democratic model that includes in the constitution a number of social rights," Portales said, referring to free higher education, the right to housing, and access to health care.

Borek's main project is to reform the pension system through the abolition of companies.

He also promised to reduce the weekly working hours from 45 to 40 hours, advance the "green economy", and create 500,000 job opportunities for women.

Maria Cristina Escudero, a professor of political science at the University of Chile, said that the model that Borek wants to copy in social democracies in Europe can be followed in Latin America with Uruguay.

"It is a small and stable country that follows a moderate development model, and it has a strong country with a large middle class and greater social justice," she said.

But Castaneda warns that "it is not possible in the short term to switch to a redistributive system" because reforms to bridge social gaps must be "gradual and long-term."

• Borek has always emphasized that he wants to put an end to the excessive liberal model that governs Chile, after it has become one of the countries that suffer from the greatest social inequality in the world.

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