Boric bets on prudence after the referendum: the success of his Presidency is at stake

• Referendum Three years after the outbreak, Chile decides which way to go

At the edge of history, not even the time was clear in Chile on the day of the referendum that polarized the country.

At midnight on Saturday, clocks will have to be turned forward one hour, which is what usually happens on the first weekend of September in Latin America's fifth-largest economy.

But

: in the early hours of Sunday, many clocks had advanced the time automatically, oblivious to the government's decision to postpone the advancement this time for a week.

It was a small sign that the government has its limits when it comes to controlling things.

Some clocks run free, and the same happens with political dynamics: regardless of whether the Constitution was approved or rejected, President Gabriel Boric is very clear that the matter still has a long way to go.

The skin of citizens is going through a state of hypersensitivity.

At the same time, if he finds a way to handle the matter once the results are defined, Boric could be facing a golden opportunity:

.

Even though some call it "merluzo", a term that came to Chile after an acid criticism by the Spanish journalist Carlos Herrera.

"The important thing for the president is to end his government with a new text, without Pinochet's Constitution," he explained to

EL MUNDO

, academic from the Adolfo Ibáñez University's school of government.

To achieve this,

: those who oppose the new Constitution from moderation and those in his political sector who want to bury the 1980 text. Achieving a meeting point between the two sectors would be the key to the vault to go through without excessive turbulence a mandate that has been going on for six months, but which, due to its intensity, would seem to have started two years ago.

"What is expected of me on September 4? What signals should I deliver to the public?" Boric asked himself in recent days according to the newspaper "La Tercera".

The conclusion was clear: the tenant of La Moneda, the president furthest to the left since

in the 1970s, needs to call for unity.

And take steps in that direction.

To understand how to do it and receive advice, he met with former president

, who became an influential critic of the forms of the process that is taking place in the country.

From those conversations came the speech that Boric already began to intensify on Sunday, after voting.

"I can guarantee that our will and action, regardless of the result, will be to convene a broad national unity of all sectors, social organizations, civil society, political parties,

. Either to implement the text of the new Constitution, for which we have already summoned several constitutionalists, and different personalities from civil society, or to give continuity to the constituent process in case the other option wins," he assured.

"Divisions are not good for us, and when we unite is when the best of us comes out, of our identity," added the president, who in his first six months in office has shown himself more as a social democrat than as an appendage controlled by the Communist Party, which was the fear spread by its detractors.

Given that relative restraint,

"The president is the one who, in the difficult moments after October 2019, gave the green light to this process, he is the one who promoted it," recalls Bellolio.

"And today he is at the head of a government that has an approval rating of close to 30%:

And if he wins the rejection, Boric could find a way to strengthen his government, adds the political scientist.

"He will have the opportunity to lead a new process that is not dominated by hard-line Octobrism, by the most radical left of the government coalition. And it would generate a change of forces,

, which could throw it into in the face of communism that squandered a historic opportunity. The government will moderate, and that will help Boric."

The proposed Constitution is one of the most extensive and detailed in the world, which has generated criticism.

Those who defend it argue that this level of detail is needed to "shield"

.

The most critical insist, however, that it threatens the economic stability and development that Chile has shown in recent decades and is directing it towards the Venezuelan model.

Boric has already shown that he does not believe in extremes and even takes his critics very seriously, as he did with Herrera, who called him a "hake" after the March 11 incident with King Felipe VI.

That time, the new Chilean president made a mistake in his words and appeared blaming the king for the late start of his inauguration ceremony, when the failure had been the local Protocol services.

"Merluzo" was not a word Chileans knew, but Herrera's tirade made it popular.

Boric himself explained it to a group of young people in August, in an analysis that reflects where he wants to go.

"I came here and a lady yelled at me hake, mamarracho. And I thought: that lady when she opens her social networks, she must have pure interactions that reinforce those same prejudices and that same opinion. And surely she votes rejection. And also the other way around, who They support the government today, surely a series of interactions against other people appear on their social networks and with very little self-criticism. And that is wrong. "

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