The presidential race on the right was officially launched with the mario Desbordes exit from the Ministry of Defense and Sebastian Sichel from the presidency of the State Bank. A competition that the former RN helmsman expects to be “zancadillas-free,” a phrase to be read between the lines knowing the right’s “fratricidal” record when entering presidential competition.
After the brief passage of both in these charges (almost five months in the case of Desbordes and a little more than 6 in the case of Sichel) Chile’s internal competition Vamos towards La Moneda was activated, adding more cards available to the names already positioned of the UDI of Evelyn Matthei and Joaquín Lavín.
And Overflows doesn’t hide his ambitions. In a statement in the courtyard of La Moneda, after the brief ceremony where Baldo Prokurica assumed in his replacement, Desbordes was made available to take up a candidacy. “It’s something I’m going to talk to the party about, it has to be resolved by the general council, but I’m absolutely available,” he said.
Then consulted by the press if he has real options to compete and become the presidential standard-bearer of Chile Vamos, the former minister commented that “of course yes, if I become the candidate of RN is to win the primary (of Chile Vamos), with Sebastian (Sichel), Joaquín (Lavín), the Evelyn (Matthei) or who joins that primary,” he said.
However, in a warning tone to keep calm in the ranks of officialism, he put the spotlight on “we have to work together, loyally, without strides, and show the country that we are able to give it a new government.”
Council yes, primaries do not
However, the desbordes proclamation depends on the General Council of RN, convened on 5 January. “I’m one of RN’s letters and that’s not discussed, that’s the case, but that’s going to be defined by the General Council in a few more months,” he said of an event where advisers like him are expected to proclaim it as the collective’s presidency.
This formula of the General Council was emphasized by the former RN helmsman, coming out in the wake of the voices within the party that raise the possibility of ditching the name of the candidate of the store via primaries, as Senator Francisco Chahuán, one of those who has presidential ambitions, has suggested.
But Desbordes was angry at noting that “the general council decides who the candidate is, that is the power of the council. They propose internal primaries people who know you can’t, they do a show to propose that. Let us respect what has been the tradition of RN, it has a general council, elected by the bases, and it has to define the general council,” Desbordes stressed.
Immediate priorities
However, beyond the presidential race, immediately, the former minister noted that his priority is to work on ordering the party and Chile Vamos, especially in view of the elections of the Constitutional Convention of 11 April next and where Desbordes will assume a key role leading the campaigns of the store.
“The most important thing today is to help restore dialogue, to collaborate with RN President Rafael Prohens to rebuild Chile Vamos’s epic (…) but most importantly now, before the presidential, before the presidential primary, there is an election of constituent, municipal, regional governors and that is what we have to work on,” he said.
