In recent months, the political environment has changed: the defeat of Apruebo in last year’s constitutional plebiscite gave way not only to a new constituent process, but to a political scenario that once again leaves the right wing, especially the extreme right wing, as a relevant actor.after its defeat in both the 2020 referendum and the 2021 presidential election.
It is in this context that challenges for the right wing and the paths it will take after the results of the election of constitutional councilors a few weeks ago are also born. This topic was the focus of the discussion that took place today as part of the inauguration of the Academic Year of the Master’s degree programs of the Research and Postgraduate Institute of the School of Economics, Government and Communications.
The activity, which was moderated by Political Science academic Sebastián Rumie, counted with the participation of two outstanding researchers: Stéphanie Alenda, lecturer at the Universidad Andrés Bello and editor of the book «Anatomía de la derecha chilena: Estado, mercado y valores en tiempos de cambio» (Anatomy of the Chilean right wing: State, market and values in times of change), and Hugo Herrera, Professor at the Universidad Diego Portales and author of the book «La derecha en la crisis del bicentenario».
«This is one activity to kick off another which is the development of our magisterial program on different participations. It is done, I would say, with something that is very demonstrative of what the university should be, which is an instance of reflection,» said Dean Luis Riveros, who also pointed out that «the university should be an instance of reflection,» he said.Each one of us will have our own truth, but we will have the opportunity to contrast them in this space»,
Challenges and future
The conversation delved into several topics about the Chilean right wing, especially the relevance that the Republican Party is having. «Let’s remember that in the election where Piñera won, the presidential election not so long ago, José Antonio Kast got around 8% of the electorate, then in the election that followed he got around 44% in the second round, and in the third round he got around 44%. Now we have seen that the Republicans have 41.5% of this entire constitutional council, why is that?» commented Professor Sebastian Rumie.
«One factor, I believe, was the discursive performance of the Frente Amplio, of the new left that comes with a more youthful, contentious discourse than the realism to which we were accustomed to democratic socialism. (…) And together with this, a certain irresponsibility regarding issues that are ugly, but which are state issues such as the rules of the economy, employment, security, are tasks that cannot be left aside, and this was added to the performance of the constituent convention where very radical speeches were made», said the academic Hugo Herrera.
Researcher Stéphanie Alenda also pointed out the role of the more moderate right wing, hand in hand with Chile Vamos in a scenario of competition not only with the ruling party, but also with the Republicans. In this line, he said that «as the government’s performance worsens, of course the Republicans have more possibilities to grow (…) Chile Vamos can always compete by showing off, toughening its discourse on issues such as order, security, etc., but He is also much more committed to certain issues that go in the direction of these great social transformations that Chile has known».
