Ethics, morals and by extension trusts are once again relevant in citizens’ perceptions of political life and its institutions. Beyond politics and its institutions, the cases, for example, of embezzlement of funds in the Armed Forces and Carabineros account for this broad and cross-sectional questioning. Not to mention the helplessness of citizens/consumers against the abusive practices of companies.
Faced with the previous diagnosis, a weariness with transgressions of public ethics and morals begins to be observed. Rejection moves in the dimension of emotions, rather than in the realm of rationality. These are preconscious or spontaneous processes that, under the general name of affections, are influencing citizens when it comes to perceiving reality and developing in it. What is at the top is the emotional record, personal experience and suspicions towards the elites. This logic also permeates individuals when it comes to shaping their electoral preferences.
This runs parallel to the erosion of trust in the institutions that we observed years ago in the country. In the case of the situation that affects the President, not only politics and its institutions are under suspicion. For many, neither the Prosecutor’s Office nor the Internal Revenue Service would have done their job in a timely manner when the background was known that now – as a result of the journalistic investigation of the Pandora Papers – puts the focus back on the presidential drive for unlimited business.
The anger and indignation in different degrees and expressions that citizens feel today with the political system, the functioning of institutions and the powerful is catalyzed in the current impeachment scenario in relation to the President of the Republic. This is connected to the strong polarization caused by the President. Piñera is a powerful generator of affective polarization.
How can institutions and politics be redeemed or saved in the face of the current impeachment scenario?
The Public Ministry decided to open a new criminal case against Sebastián Piñera formally installing the presidential impeachment scenario. The likely entry in the coming days of the libel of the constitutional accusation against the President will be the inescapable next step. Institutions and politics will once again be put to the test. Beyond the result of the actions of these or the outcome of the constitutional accusation, it seems clear that we are witnessing the end of an era.
In this political interregnum in which we live, in a Gramcsian key, between the cycle that dies and the one that seeks to be born, perhaps the dismissal of President Sebastian Piñera will be the symbol – the monsters that arise in chiaroscuro – that puts an end to the political cycle.
The content expressed in this opinion column is the sole responsibility of its author, and does not necessarily reflect the editorial line or position of El Mostrador.
