Boric, in the procession that led him to Congress as president of Chile. /
The youngest head of state in the country’s history assumed the Presidency this Friday and promised “profound” changes
Chile launches a government of a “new left” with Gabriel Boric at the helm. A politician who, after years of student struggle and social activism, at the age of 36 becomes the youngest head of state in the history of this Latin American territory. He is also the first who is not part of the two large center blocs that have been in office since the return to democracy in 1990. The president, who assumed the Presidency this Friday, comes to power with feminist, environmentalist and moderate.
“We are going to give the best of ourselves to rise to the challenges we face as a country,” declared Boric – a deputy since 2014 and still about to graduate in Law – during his oath. His mission, assured the spokeswoman for the renewed Executive, Camila Vallejo, will be to promote “profound” changes in society to advance towards equality and rights. “It is a change of citizen command, a historic day. We are in a government that proposes these profound transformations », he stressed before the ceremony in the coastal city of Valparaíso.
The investiture was loaded with symbolism. The official photo of the team, the first with more women than men in the country’s history –14 appointed ministers in 24 portfolios, including Interior, Foreign Ministry, Justice and Human Rights–, was not taken in front of the traditional façade of the Cerro Palace Castle but in the garden to highlight its commitment to defending the environment. In addition, the ministers opted for the color purple to symbolize the feminist struggle. “There are several gestures there that arise spontaneously and the feminist stamp is one of the most important for us,” Vallejo said.
feminist politics
“There is a lot of expectation” in this new political cycle, both in Chile and “in Latin America and the rest of the world,” said the new Foreign Minister, Antonio Urrejola, who assured that the Executive wants to represent a “new left far from the old regimes that use this same denomination». In fact, Boric distanced himself from leaders of the left who defend it from dogma and distanced himself from Bolivarian governments. This new era will be with a “modern, young and democratic look, represented in human rights and feminist politics,” she added.
His coming to power and the consequent farewell to former right-wing president Sebastián Piñera mark the retirement of an entire generation of leaders – some from the 1970s. Piñera, a 72-year-old millionaire businessman, thus concludes his second term, which has left a large gap in social inequality and triggered massive protests in October 2019. In this sense, the Interior and Justice ministries, which start this weekend , announced this Friday that they will withdraw 139 complaints against the State Security Law filed in the framework of the social outbreak.
