On Wednesday, former Interior Minister Álvaro Elizalde addressed the complex situation the country is facing with the truckers' strike, as well as the constitutional accusation against Minister Fernando Rabat. Asked first in an interview with Radio ADN about his assessment of how José Antonio Kast's government is doing, the former authority stated flatly that it is doing "badly." "In one word, it is doing badly. Because I think, look, there was a narrative to win the presidential election, and statements were made that have not had any correlation in actions by the government," he said. In this regard, he warned, "President Kast won the election on two fundamental issues: migration and security. On security, he didn't even have a single written page of what needed to be done. The results the government has shown are, rather, the effect of the momentum carried over from the very good management that, in my view, Carolina Tohá carried out, because she updated the regulatory framework, and that translated into the most serious crimes in Chile entering a downward trend rather than increasing as had been the case before." And on the economic front, he added, "it has taken measures that have had an impact on people's lives." "Past economic crises were the expression or consequence of global crises (...) Today the world economy has not stopped growing; it is Chile that has stopped growing," he declared. Therefore, he pointed out, regardless of the inflationary impact the war in Iran has had, "this has to do with certain decisions the government made." "Particularly the first, stating that we were bankrupt, and second, the fuel shock, the gasoline price hike, which contracted consumption, generated fear, and that obviously has had an impact on the economy," he argued. The data on this, Elizalde explained, "are clear." "The Central Bank and international organizations were saying that Chile would grow this year at 2.5%, which is what it had been growing under the last years of President Boric, and we are growing at zero, and therefore certain decisions were made that have had an impact, and those are decisions attributable, for the most part, or effects of the government's decisions," he declared.
Elizalde: "If I were Minister Rabat, and I cause this problem for the government, I would submit my irrevocable resignation"
As for the constitutional accusation against Minister Rabat and whether there is merit to it, Elizalde said that "there is no doubt that he has committed legal and constitutional violations." On this, he cited four examples: "First, the law that excludes this benefit is explicit; the legislator's will is explicit. The minister simply had to comply with it. Whether this later generated a dispute in the courts is another matter, but the legislator's will is clear on this issue," he said. Second, "when the minister says he will suspend decisions, he is not complying with the principle of non-excusability and diligence, which requires him to act with the greatest possible speed to resolve them." As a third point, he argued that on the matter of benefits for human rights violators, this "tramples on international treaties signed and ratified by Chile, particularly the Treaty of Rome." "And fourth, the minister hid information from the National Congress when he went to the Special Commission," he added. "In that session he cited only the case law that supported his thesis, and it later came out that he had rejected nine cases (...) This is a very serious offense because it violates the principle of probity enshrined in the Constitution. That is a constitutional violation." Along these lines, the socialist pointed out that if he were Minister Rabat, he would have resigned. "If I were Minister Rabat — I want to say this very clearly — and I cause this problem for the government, I would submit my irrevocable resignation," he said. And he continued: "If he had a commitment to the collective project that represents this vision of President Kast regarding his project for the country, what he should have done was submit his irrevocable resignation."
Elizalde on Quiroz: "He is not a macroeconomist, and therefore he made bad decisions"
Asked, moreover, about the truckers' strike and how the government has handled this crisis, Elizalde pointed to the guilds, saying that "the national leadership lost connection with its grassroots." "The leader Sergio Pérez — the political jersey weighs heavily on him, and weighs more than the guild jersey (...) he would threaten strike against previous governments over nothing, and now with the gasoline price hike and the effect it had on diesel, on fuel, for the trucks, he simply said 'we must be patient, we must stand by the government in its decision,'" he explained. So, "that generated a rupture with those he represents, and what we see today is that regional leaderships have emerged with great force, reflecting the negative impact that the decisions adopted by Minister Quiroz have had." On this point and regarding fiscal balance, Elizalde pointed out that cutting corporate taxes without compensation ultimately "deepens the fiscal deficit, on the assumption that we were going to grow more, and this year we are not growing." "And if next year we grow a little more, it will be the rebound from what we did not grow this year. It is not the same to grow 2.5 on a base of 2.5 as — using an optimistic calculation — to grow 3 on a base of 0," he explained. In this regard, he affirmed, "there have been decisions adopted by the government that have been harmful to Chilean women and men, and in the case of Minister Quiroz, it is because — as Evelyn Matthei said — he is not a macroeconomist, and therefore he made bad decisions, and those decisions have had an impact on employment, on economic growth, on inflation." On how this crisis with the truckers should be resolved, Elizalde said that while there is no such thing as perfect negotiation, "governing a country requires a great deal of social dialogue, requires a great deal of listening, requires empathy to put oneself in the place of whoever is upset, and that is what the government has lacked."