Government catalogs as “difficult to understand” rejection of the project of limited withdrawal of funds from the AFP

Around midnight on Monday, the Chamber of Deputies rejected the project presented by the government that proposed a limited withdrawal of AFP funds. The norm can be replaced by the Executive in the Senate, but it must go through an extensive legislative process.
with 68 votes in favor and 63 against, the Lower House rejected the “alternative” initiative presented by the government, where it only had the support of the ruling parties of Apruebo Dignidad and certain parliamentarians of the exconcertación.
Likewise, the Lower House also rejected the initiative that sought a fifth universal withdrawal, which was proposed by a group of deputies. In this regard, the minister of the Segpres, Giorgio Jackson, indicated that it is a “difficult situation to understand” and that they will concentrate on promoting the structural reforms contemplated in the government plan.
“The government program of President Gabriel Boric did not contemplate within his agenda to incorporate a new withdrawal of pension funds, but focused on the structural reforms that the country requires, both in terms of pensions and others, so that people can have permanent relief from demands that they have waited for so long,” Said.
“We thought it was the parliamentarians themselves who had raised the concern of the issues that we put on the table, who were going to incite a majority. It turns out that the same parliamentarians who approved the project in the Labor Committee, then ended up rejecting it in the room. It’s a difficult situation to understand,” he added.
In that sense, Minister Jackson said that “now as executive we are totally dedicated to fulfilling the mandate we have, which is to propose to the country a comprehensive and significant reform of the pension system in order to guarantee social security.”
On the other hand, the Minister of Finance, Mario Marcel, said that “it is evident that the quorum required to approve the massive and unconditional withdrawal was not reached, but that a majority was not even reached.”
“That indicates that the arguments we put on the table were understood by the parliamentarians. I think it was understood that this was a different scenario from the one that existed in the first retreat, and that the damage that this would have caused to the citizens would have been much greater than any specific benefit that it would have generated for certain people, “he said.
“We picked up on the concerns expressed by parliamentarians during the first stage of the discussion of constitutional reform. We finally found that there was not enough support to pass it,” he added.
For her part, the Minister of Labor, Jeannette Jara, took advantage of the instance to make an announcement to the citizens after the rejection of the initiatives.
“We want to point out that we have a rich agenda for the coming days and we believe that it is super important to evaluate the steps to be taken by the Government. In particular, we want to highlight that during the next few days a bill on minimum wage will be presented and that it will be in agreement with workers’ organizations,” he concluded.

Original source in Spanish