“We are going to start the process of censoring the commissions of the Chamber of Deputies. We have reached an agreement between the PDG, Republican Party, National Renewal, the UDI and Evópoli. We have the votes to censure thirteen commissions.” This is how the head of the Evópoli bloc, Francisco Undurraga, confirmed the opposition agreement to try to take control of the parliamentary instances that are currently – for the most part – in the hands of the ruling party.
“We believe that the political forces have changed and from that point of view we are going to exercise democracy and we are going to transfer the command of the commissions to this new political force that went against President Mirosevic in the previous elections,” added Deputy Undurraga, along with his peers Andrés Longton (RN), Jorge Alessandri (UDI). José Miguel Castro (RN) and José Carlos Meza (REP). And it is that the opposition – together with the PDG – is still wounded after losing the presidency of the Lower House.
In fact, Deputy Alessandri remarked that there is even the option of censuring the President of the Chamber himself, Vlado Mirosevic (PL). “The day he loses the circumstantial majority in the room, he will be censored, because that’s how internal democracy operates,” he said.
Deputy Longton detailed some of the commissions in which they will seek censorship, assuring that their objective is to raise “the priorities that this Congress should have to make up for the ‘lack of agenda’ of the government.”
These would be the Emergency, Disaster and Fire Commissions; Water Resources and Desertification; Seniors and Disability; Future, Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation; National Defense; Citizen Security; Social Development; Mining; Sports and Recreation; Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development; Economy, Development; Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises; Consumer Protection and Tourism; Extreme Zones and Chilean Antarctica; of Culture, Arts and Communications.
For his part, the deputy of the Socialist Party (PS), Marcos Ilabaca, expressed the concern that exists within the PS bench, regarding the call made by Francisco Muñoz – alias Pancho Malo – and Deputy Gonzalo De La Carrera to be able to carry out precisely the motion of censure towards the Economy Commission. “Here the question to the right is whether they are available to continue playing at the pace set by Pancho Malo and De La Carrera, or are they going to make a decision regarding what different organizations in the world of economics are requesting,” he questioned.
Deputy Ilabaca called for this type of issues of the administrative governance of the Chamber, in all its dimensions, “to be serious and have a republican and responsible look.”
It is worth mentioning that the Government harshly criticized the motion of censure against the president of the Economy Committee of the Chamber, the socialist deputy Daniel Manouchehri. This is the motion presented by Deputy De la Carrera, after accusing his official colleague of processing bills of “particular interest.” Recall that De la Carrera assaulted Manouchehri a few months ago, for which he was sanctioned in the Ethics Commission.
In this regard, the Minister of the Segpres, Ana Lya Uriarte, stressed that “it has been our purpose as a Government to strengthen a healthy, democratic, friendly and friendly coexistence within the National Congress. It seems to us that this is what the citizenry demands of us, tired of small fights.” And he added: “The censorship of the deputy does not contribute either to that democratic dialogue or to solve people’s lives, but rather is inscribed in the area of political fight where we would not want to be.”
Minister Uriarte also highlighted the work that Manouchehri has done at the head of the Economy Commission. “He has had a performance, according to the background we have requested, absolutely impeccable. Censorship has no other justification than to make a political majority prevail over the performance of the task.”
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