Reportage
Chile: opponents of the new Constitution mobilize
Audio 03:30
A Chilean protester opposed to the country's new Constitution, on July 23, 2022 in Santiago de Chile.
© Esteban Felix/AP
Text by: Naïla Derroisné
3 mins
In Chile, the campaign for the September 4 referendum on the new Constitution is in full swing.
15 million Chileans will be called to the polls for a compulsory vote.
And according to the latest polls, the
no” to the new Constitution could win.
This is also the option that the right-wing coalition has chosen.
Just like a center-left ex-president who announced that he would vote “
against
”.
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From our correspondent in
Santiago de Chile,
In the center of the capital, around 60 people gathered and waved Chilean flags.
A large banner was unfurled on which it is written: “
Rechazo Popular
” (
popular rejection
, in French).
"
This movement is for Chile, for the homeland above all
", launches one of the participants in the megaphone.
A far-right rally Jessica attended.
She will vote "
against
"
the new Constitution
, because she wants to keep the one currently in force written under the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in 1980.
“
It is no longer the Constitution of the generals, because many reforms have been made to it and Pinochet's signature is no longer on the document.
This Constitution made us grow economically and it was the general who got us out of the
"shit"
in which President Allende had put us.
»
Jessica thinks that if the new Constitution is approved, it will open the door to the communist regime: “
Communism is a cancer.
I don't want my country to become like Venezuela or Cuba.
I want to be free in my country!
".
Fears about certain concepts of the new Constitution
Beside her, Pamela waves her Chilean flag in the air.
She too will reject the new Constitution for several reasons, but there is one article in particular that caught her attention.
“
Comprehensive sex education is an indoctrination of young children and it undermines their sexuality.
A 5-year-old child doesn't need to hear about sex.
He must live his life normally and freely like any other child.
»
►Also read: Chile, the first country in the world to include abortion in its draft new Constitution
But the new Constitution does not determine a precise age with regard to integral sexual education.
It simply guarantees this right to all persons.
A lot of false information like this is circulating about the new text, such as the notion of a “
plurinational
” state.
In his song, rapper Fos One
rejects the "
plurinationality
"
that recognizes indigenous peoples and guarantees them rights, but the singer doesn't see it that way.
“
There will be different rules between indigenous peoples and other Chileans
, thinks the rapper.
Even if the country is not divided territorially, there will still be divisions, because the indigenous peoples will have their own justice system.
»
In recent weeks, several leading center-left and center-right parties have announced that they will vote “against” the new Constitution.
Jaime Arancibia is a professor of law at the conservative University of Los Andes: "
I think it has democratic and popular validity, but it does not meet the other condition, which I think is very important for a constitution, which is the legitimacy text technology.
The Constituent Assembly and its revolutionary, refounding and quite populist side, I would also say, did not pay much attention to the opinion of the experts.
»
Towards a new process?
Jaime recognizes the importance of the social rights enshrined in the new Constitution: housing, health and education, but he fears that the new text cannot guarantee their financing.
“
All these rights will not be able to materialize because, in my opinion, the political system that has been defined is not good and the new text will not allow sufficient economic growth.
»
If the new Constitution is rejected, more than two out of three Chileans would support a new constitutional process to write another text.
President Gabriel Boric
himself considered this option
, pointing out that the country had largely come out in favor of a new Constitution two years ago, thus burying the current text written under the dictatorship.
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Chile
Gabriel Boric