Just over four months after the September 4 referendum in Chile, in which 62% of voters rejected the proposal for a new constitution drafted by a convention, the South American country is launching a second attempt to replace the current Basic Charter. After intense negotiations in Congress and after Parliament last week approved the constitutional reform that will make the new constituent phase possible, Gabriel Boric’s government promulgated it this Monday without much ceremony and published it in the Official Gazette today, officially starting 12 months of hard work . It ends on December 17 with an exit vote, where citizens will decide whether to accept or reject the new text, which aims to surpass the current text of Augusto Pinochet’s 1980 dictatorship, although it has been reformed dozens of times.
It is a very intensive and fast process, in contrast to the failed attempt that took place between 2020 and 2022. Next week Parliament must appoint a joint expert committee of 24 people – 12 elected by MPs and 12 by senators. who will be working on a draft of the new constitution for three months from March and who will have the right to speak during all the months of work and a lot of influence. Meanwhile, February 6 is the deadline for the various political forces to nominate their candidates to form the draft body. The Constitutional Council consists of 50 people – 25 women and 25 men – and will be elected on May 7th through the mechanism of compulsory suffrage. He will start work on June 7th and will have five months to draft the proposal, which should be finalized next 11/7.
The new constituent attempt was classified as baroque due to the amount of equipment, steps and rules it contains in advance. However, it was the political formula that forces in Congress agreed upon to avoid the previous failed experience that ended in a text that fundamentally transformed Chilean institutions and was eventually widely rejected. “It will be a constitutional debate based on an overlapping consensus among all political forces, including the Communist Party. It’s not about boundaries that come from outside the political process, but about a consensus that emerges within the political process,” explained lawyer Carlos Peña in an interview with EL PAÍS. Criticizing an alleged excess of padlocks, University rector Diego Portales added: “Calling it Moorings is changing its meaning. Would anyone say that the earlier consensus that led to the 1978 Constitution in Spain was actually an anchor?
That same January, Congress must appoint a team of 14 arbitrators, all attorneys, who must be composed equally. It is the Technical Admissibility Committee that must ensure that the 12 constitutional bases agreed upon by political forces are respected throughout the process. The proposal for a new constitution can therefore not deviate from certain principles, such as that Chile will continue to be a democratic republic, a unitary and decentralized state, a social and democratic constitutional state with the same patriotic emblems as at present. According to these principles, the separation of the three branches of state is affirmed and that the legislature will be bicameral, consisting of a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies. In addition to recognizing the indigenous peoples as part of the Chilean nation – “one and indivisible” – it underscores the subordination of the armed forces and law enforcement and security forces to civilian power. The proposal put to the vote must, among other things, establish the autonomy of bodies such as the central bank, the electoral judiciary, the public ministry and the court of auditors, and the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms. The new text must state that Chile must commit itself to protecting the environment.
When Congress elects the 24 expert witnesses and admissibility committee from 14 attorneys this January, it will be crucial to the process. “I’m afraid some want to pick local friends and not real experts,” former Socialist President Ricardo Lagos said in an interview over the weekend. “If we fail in this second attempt at a constitution, it means that we are in a very difficult situation,” said the former president, who ruled between 2000 and 2006 and played a key role in Chile’s constitution-making process.
One of the main challenges of the process – which the government is following with great interest but not from the lead – will be to inspire citizenship. The constitutional issue is far removed from the concerns of people facing the Covid-19 health crisis, the aftermath of the war in Ukraine and inflation since 2020. According to a survey released two weeks ago by the Centro de Estudios Públicos, CEP, crime, mugging and robbery are the first priority that the government should deal with, according to Chilean society, far ahead of other needs such as health, pensions and education. In the same poll, 37% say new text is likely to help solve the problems, while 30% believe they would leave things as they are.
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