The tightening of the quarantine measures announced on Thursday in La Moneda opened a flank of conflict within officialism. This is because while in National Renewal they were folded to the new provisions established by the Executive, in the Independent Democratic Union (UDI) they issued a public statement in defense of “entrepreneurs in the face of government restrictions”.
Among the measures announced this morning in the daily balance sheet of the Ministry of Health are a new definition of essential goods for domestic use, the elimination of essential twists such as the sale of clothing and footwear, and a greater limitation of activities considered essential.
For the UDI, this is an almost principled discussion, in the view that such a restriction affects the freedom to undertake. And so the party stated in a statement that “we are deeply drawn to the possibility that entrepreneurs may sell their products through social networks such as Instagram, a path that hundreds or thousands of people have used as a way to generate resources in the midst of the complex economic situation they must face as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.”
“As an UDI directive we consider this government ban to be unacceptable, inentendable and contrary to any logic of those of us who firmly believe in the strength of entrepreneurship as the engine of our society, which has been able to adapt very hard to the new rules of the game. We understand that certain activities are limited, but to limit the possibility of undertaking and, moreover, to restrict hundreds of families whose income depends on those ventures is simply indefensible (…) We do not share much less will support government decisions of this kind, which also depart from the ideas in which we believe in the centre-right,” adds the text.
At the same time, the party led by Javier Macaya insisted to the Government that it must improve its social offer to help the population in this contingency. “We have called on the government to make financial aid more flexible. For this, we are presenting a serious and responsible proposal this week, but at the same time to improve the economic situation of those who have suffered the most with this pandemic, but we see how the government applies a new restriction that affects, precisely, those who are looking to succeed,” adds the statement.
RN support
In RN they came to the path of this “friendly fire” thrown by gremialism. For the former head of deputies, Sebastián Torrealba, “the UDI’s criticism of changes to the Paso a Paso plan is incomprehensible. Who doesn’t understand that these measures are urgent because we have 159 critical beds available?”
“More than criticizing we need to collaborate and listen to the health authority and all together make the effort to win the battle for this cursed virus. The call is to collaborate more and criticize less,” the MP said.
Meanwhile, the President of National Renewal, Senator Rafael Prohens, supported the measures announced by the government and The official helmsman noted that these announcements are on the right line to take care of the health of Chileans.
“We support the steps That Minister Enrique Paris has taken to protect the population. We have a high level of contagion and a shortage of critical beds (…) We support your management. It has been clear and transparent with the information the country needs and requires. And he’s done that every day. Therefore, it has all the support and confidence of National Renewal,” he added.
