“It is a fact that the party is traversed by strongly divergent tendencies with respect to the presidential election, which have respectable but irreconcilable foundations. Resolving these differences with disciplinary measures will only deepen the crisis, provoke the departure of more militants, and provide a formal solution to a legitimate political controversy. We invite community members to resolve this dilemma by declaring freedom of action in the face of the presidential election and commit ourselves to supporting the party’s candidates for regional councilors and parliamentarians ”.
That is the final point of a letter that has circulated within the Socialist Party in recent days, with the aim that the community members of the community distance themselves from the candidate of the New Social Pact, Yasna Provoste, and they decree freedom of action in presidential matters, despite the fact that the party institutionally supports the option of the Christian Democrats.
The text is given in the midst of the concern that has arisen in that campaign before the possibility that some socialist leaders “flee” towards the candidacy of the standard-bearer of Approve Dignity, Gabriel boric. This risk, they say in the party, has been mainly in the dissident sectors to the directive led by Senator Álvaro Elizalde. Even the race for the “socialist world” has faced Provoste and Boric, who have made a series of gestures towards that sector.
Although the letter is not yet in its final version, at least three municipalities of the Metropolitan Region have already decreed freedom in presidential matters. The situation, they say in the sector, materializes the focus of concern for the communities that support the option of Senator DC. This is a theme that has been installed for days in both the Provoste and Boric command. So much so, that two weeks ago the standard-bearer of the Frente Amplio, in an appointment with the parties of Approve Dignity, expressed his concern for not “Split the PS”.
The first communal were those of Macul and La Reina. “Today the DC does not represent a left-wing or transforming project that takes charge of the demands of the Chilean people (…) Despite the erroneous decisions of the national table, it is unsustainable for socialists to join that project, and therefore as a communal we will not join the Yasna Provoste campaign, leaving us free to act to choose the candidate who best represents the values of Chilean socialism, “said PS de Macul, in a statement on September 7. A similar text also issued from La Reina.
To this was added the community of Ñuñoa, which on Tuesday night announced the conclusion of the extended meeting last Friday. “We communicate that the Communal Socialist Party Ñuñoa regarding the 2021 Presidential Elections, resolved in the Extended Communal of September 25, 2021, by the majority of the attendees, the freedom of action regarding the support in these elections ”, they wrote.
That commune, however, has already raised options contrary to those promoted by the Elizalde table, ignoring the institutional agreements with the DC. Last year, the leaders of that place withdrew their support for the Christian Democratic mayoral candidate, Juan Pablo Sáez, and backed the DR Emilia Ríos. In addition, one of the main socialist references in the area, the deputy Maya fernandez, has already made clear gestures towards Boric’s presidential candidacy.
According to the PS dissent, other communes such as Peñalolén, Olmué, Iquique, Valparaíso, Chillán and Curacaví they would also have taken the same definition. From Providencia and SantiagoMeanwhile, they assure that they will hold meetings in the coming days to evaluate the issue.
But that has not been the only internal “disorder” in the PS. From that same sector they are promoting a letter in which they call on the party to distance itself from the DC option and ask for the resignation of Elizalde and his secretary general, Andrés Santander. “The current Party leadership (…) is responsible for a zigzagging, opportunistic leadership and an absolute lack of seriousness and respect towards our circumstantial allies and towards the citizens we aspire to represent, placing us in a complex dilemma in the presidential scenario , against which there is only the freedom of action of the militancy to avoid the risk of continuing to fracture our already weakened party organization ”, they state in the letter.
Until the closing of this edition, the text had the signature of more than 70 leaders, including the member of the central committee of the PS, Miriam Becerra, the former candidate for conventional constituent for Iquique, Julia Gandarillas and the former deputy Fanny pollarolo, among others.
For their part, some of the socialists who support the Provoste option acknowledge the situation and assure that within that command they are aware of the internal movements in the PS. Nevertheless, they maintain that the problem would be restricted to the dissent of the community and that it would not compromise the institutional support of the party with the candidacy of the former president of the Senate.
“I have no doubt that socialist men and women, the socialist people, will honor their word and their democratic principles that we assume when we promote the holding of a primary,” said Provoste campaign manager Alejandro Goic (PS). And he added: “Our commitment is in the unity of the center and the left to make the profound transformations that the country expects and that no one can better guarantee than Yasna Provoste.”
While, from the PS table they insisted that the definitions of some communal communities would not have legal support and that they would contravene the statutes of the community.
“I can affirm that the Socialist Party is active and engaged in the Yasna Provoste campaign, which is undoubtedly the best option to develop a program of profound changes with governance and social peace. We participate in a primary or citizen consultation, which we promote, a prominent socialist militant, Alejandro Goic, is the campaign manager; the command in Santiago works at our headquarters on Paris Street and our candidates and leaders are deployed throughout Chile promoting the alternative that Yasna represents, ”said the Secretary General, Andrés Santander.
