In Chile, the centre-left government of Gabriel Boric is facing its first parliamentary crisis since it was installed a little over a month ago. And this crystallizes around one bill in particular: the one that seeks to allow Chileans to withdraw part of the money from their retirement savings so that they can financially cope with the pandemic. Monday, April 18, Chilean deputies voted against this bill.
With our correspondent in Santiago, Naila Derroisne
The vote of the Chilean deputies goes in the direction of the government which called to reject this bill. The Chilean Minister of Finance explained that a new withdrawal of money from retirement savings would only aggravate the already very high inflation in the country.
Indeed, Chileans have already been allowed to dip into their savings three times. It was therefore a very popular measure, but considered dangerous for the economy.
A bill on the use of pension funds also rejected
That is why, while rejecting this bill, the government of Gabriel Boric had presented another, more targeted, authorizing citizens to use their pension funds, but under certain conditions, to pay their debts for example. But this bill was also not approved by the deputies on Monday. It is therefore a semi-failure for Gabriel Boric since his left-wing coalition in Parliament failed to reach an agreement.
It remains to be seen how the Chileans will react. Already on Monday, the employees of one of the largest ports in the country went on strike to exert pressure in order to be able to access their pension funds.
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