In Chile, there is still a month and a half before the mandatory referendum of September 4: “yes” or “no” to the new Constitution. According to the latest polls, the “no” could win and the country could then keep the current Constitution, written under the dictatorship. President Gabriel Boric, who is in favor of the new constitutional text, is preparing for this eventuality. In a television interview, he said this week that if the new Constitution were rejected, “everything would have to be started from scratch”.
with our correspondent in Santiago, Naila Derroisne
Gabriel Boric anticipates and projects itself after the referendum. If the new Constitution is rejected, “it will take new elections, to elect a new assembly which will draft a new constitutional text”, he said. And his argument is that Chile voted very clearly in the first referendum in October 2020 in favor of a new Constitution written by people elected by the citizens.
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Several members of his sector have criticized his announcement, they who only consider one possible outcome to the referendum: the approval of the new constitutional text. According to a member of the presidential coalition, “what must be done today is to concretize the establishment of the new Constitution instead of considering scenarios that are still fictitious”, she was annoyed.
The opposition, for its part, welcomed the president’s words rather well, since indeed the right rejects the new Constitution and therefore considers it “reasonable” and “realistic” that the government is preparing for this eventuality.
The two camps still have seven weeks to try to convince the undecided because three out of 10 Chileans do not yet know what they will vote for. next september 4.