Director of the CEP, Leonidas Montes, believes that social rights “have to be” in a consensus Constitution

“It would be a tremendous political defeat if the right did not comply with those agreements. There are no times for that,” said Leonidas Montes, director of the Center for Public Studies (CEP), about the position that the opposition must assume in case the Rejection option is imposed in the exit plebiscite. According to the philosopher and civil engineer, this sector must promote a change in its view of subsidiarity and the role of the State in society, thus assuming that social rights are already fully installed in the civic culture of the country.
“A social and democratic state; the social rights that have to be and the recognition of indigenous peoples is part of what has to happen. Now, the issue is how it happens, because it is important that this is not an eternal issue or that it remains in the air,” he told El Mercurio. “People have been anxious for agreements for a long time. Chile is still a country of the center and that drunkenness that derived from the outbreak has already passed. And if the center-right has already taken a step down the quorum, now it must open itself, really, to a social state of law,” he added.
The director of the CEP called on the different parties to promote a broad agreement to give clarity to the constituent question. “What is agreed is going to have to be something consensual, that calls for agreements and that is fast. We cannot continue in an eternal constitutional debate because everything has already been said, so there has to be a political agreement that really is the ‘house of all’, that is the greatest opportunity for President Boric,” he said.
On the agreement signed by the leaders of Apruebo Dignidad and Socialismo Democrático, Montes was critical: “Between roosters and midnight they cooked a stew that will be very difficult to swallow. When many brave people on the democratic and republican left dared to speak their minds, they were criticized, dismissed and accused of spreading fake news. With this new flip they turn the alleged fake news into reality. And by the way, they continue to play with their credibility.”
Likewise, Montes described as an advance the agreements aimed at eliminating the presidential re-election and returning control of fiscal spending to the Presidency, “but insufficient, because we farreamos solve the problem of governability. This spawn between presidentialism and asymmetrical bicameralism is a path to greater political fragmentation.
On the other hand, regarding the reform commitments to limit the most complex scopes of plurinationality, the analyst highlighted the “promise of moderation in the legislative, which must overcome the problem of consent with the new lock,” he said, although he was emphatic in affirming that his decision to support the Rejection option, since it is the simplest way to have a new Constitution.

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Original source in Spanish