The project was one of the key elements of the government of President Gabriel Boric, because from there, other initiatives could be executed, such as the melioration of the pension system and the expansion of health, education and housing services, among others.
To overcome the first legislative step, 78 votes in favor were needed or, at least, the difference of positive votes should be higher than those against plus the abstentions.
The final result was 73 in favor of the reform, 71 in favor of maintaining the current system and three deputies abstained, so the initiative was removed from the agenda and it will be necessary to wait a year to present it again.
During a visit to the north of the country, President Boric regretted the result and said that ‘when we begin to get out of a long crisis, there is a sector trying to avoid changes’.
It is not the government who was defeated, he affirmed, but millions of Chileans with many years of waiting for a fairer country, with decent pensions and without waiting in long lines before getting timely attention in hospitals and doctors’ offices.
Boric agreed with the Minister of Finance, Mario Marcel, that those who are celebrating the result in Congress are precisely the tax evaders, who take advantage of the loopholes in the current laws and also their advisors in this matter. The Minister of Labor and Social Welfare, Jeannette Jara, acknowledged that the rejection to reform the tax system complicates things for the executive to carry out its program of transformations. Meanwhile, the deputy for the Socialist Party Daniel Manouchehri affirmed that the right wing gave a blow to the country by cutting the necessary resources to raise the pensions of Chileans and to fight crime.
It does not seem just to us when we see the right wing celebrating a political triumph, which is a social defeat for Chileans’, he said.
Special criticisms received the deputies Pamela Jiles and Mónica Arce, from the Humanist Party, and Viviana Delgado, from the Green Ecologist, who for personal reasons, withdrew from the chamber to deny the votes that would have given the green light to the project.
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