Schalper hits his government for "lack of urgency" in public order: "He failed to take charge" | bbcl_research | BioBioChile

Deputy Diego Schalper (RN) admits that although important milestones have been reached during this second government of Sebastián Piñera, such as the management of the pandemic and his vaccination plan, at the same time he had mistakes that could have been avoided.

“The most important is public order and security, where I believe it is already a fact that the government basically failed to adequately address this problem,” he said in a conversation with BioBioChile.

In turn, the parliamentarian mentions that although the new cabinet announced by the president-elect Gabriel Boric seems to him a "good picture", he adds that "up to now, the film has not gone very well", pointing to certain “internal conflicts”.

For his part, he addressed the idea presented by Francisco Chahuán, who proposed appointing a “shadow cabinet” or “alternate ministers” to the official heads to oversee their work.

“It is an idea that has a purpose, which is to understand that the center-right has to take action”, maintains the general secretary of RN.

Second government of Piñera

-How do you evaluate this second government of Sebastián Piñera?

This has been a government of hits and misses. For my taste, its successes are the vaccination campaign, which only time will allow us to determine what it has meant for Chile that we have vaccines as we have them. I have the impression that it is still not possible to understand the magnitude of what vaccination has meant in Chile and the number of lives that have been saved by that decision, which is a decision of President Sebastián Piñera.

Now, for my taste, I believe that the government had neither the sense of urgency nor the necessary anticipation to notice two issues. The most important is public order and security, where I think it is already a fact that the government basically failed to adequately address this problem, and secondly, the issue of social reforms. I also believe that the opposition, unfortunately, has not done much of its part, but in regards to pensions or health, we could have pushed the reforms forward.

-When you talk about public order and security, what do you think could have been done?

I think we needed to give more political support to the Carabineros so they could do their job. I think there were moments in which some basically tried to pierce the position of the Carabineros. There was not enough strength to support them, both in their internal modernization processes and in infrastructure and public support. And I think that this has obviously been putting public order in a very complex situation.

Now, look at the twists and turns of life, because the same ones who have pierced the Carabineros for several years are now going to have to govern and there they will have to answer for public order and hopefully they understand that the task of the Carabineros is tremendously difficult because when they do not attend, the police are treated as inefficient, and when they do attend they are told that they violate human rights. So in that equation, it's frankly very difficult to enforce law and order.

Future Minister of the Interior

-And in that sense, how do you think the relationship between the future Minister of the Interior, Izkia Siches, and the Carabineros will be?

I think she has a tremendous task, because until recently she said that she would never implement law enforcement to appease social protest. I think that when she refers to it in those terms, she will realize that when in practice a peaceful protest arises, which I support and support, there is a group of people who use it as a context to cause violence, the action of Carabineros is not only a right but it is their duty to be able to protect innocent people.

-Speaking of the future Minister of the Interior, what do you think Gabriel Boric's first months in power will be like?

I want Gabriel Boric to do well, because if he does well, Chile does well. I am a Democrat and therefore I respect the results of the elections. He is going to have tremendous challenges, the first being to move forward with the so-called tax reform, which he has been announcing, where he will realize the difficulty of moving through the National Congress.

Secondly, the control of public order and immigration, which is a problem inherited from the administration of Michelle Bachelet and obviously is causing a very tense situation, especially in the north of the country.

Third, the control of public order in the Southern Macrozone. They have said that they are going to change the strategy. Well, when you change strategies, you are responsible for those changes in strategies. I believe that in general, Gabriel Boric is going to have a difficult task of meeting the expectations that he raised, and managing a coalition that up to now the only thing that has shown is lack of coordination and a lack of internal trust, because the fact that today day we do not have undersecretaries is not the result of the background check, but basically it is because they were not able to reach an agreement with their coalition.

-You mentioned the case of the southern Macrozone. What do you think that Boric has indicated that in his government he will put an end to the state of emergency in said area?

When 81% of an area expresses a feeling, it does not do so by chance. I believe that the president-elect is still in time to reconsider his bad decision.

Leaders in the opposition

-Moving on to another topic, who do you project as opposition leaders from March?

I think that assigning leaders is totally artificial. Here we are going to need many people to exercise leadership, people who are in formal political positions but also people who are not in formal political positions. I am thinking of intellectuals, of people from the social world, of people from the student world.

What we have to build here is a group of diverse people, with different sensibilities who want to give the country a process of change with responsibility. And in that same context, support the government in everything that is framed with responsibility, and obviously oppose the government in those things that are detrimental to people. The right has to assume a collective project of change with sustainability and responsibility. That is what we have to propose to the country.

-But among the names that have been mentioned as opposition leaders, you even appear. How do you take it?

I say the same thing to everyone, I believe that leadership is not assigned but rather they are exercises that one performs to achieve certain objectives. And the objectives that at least personally I have set myself, is how to collaborate so that from Renovación Nacional and from Chile Vamos we are capable of building a project of the future, with roots in the streets, in the regions, in the base communities, bringing from turn the concerns of people who are invisible in our country. Those are the axes in which at least I want to work and obviously I will try to contribute as much as possible so that the sector does very well.

-A few days ago, Mario Desbordes said that Diego Schalper could be a “young” leader, but that he saw it as difficult for him to lead the sector itself. "He still has a long way to go, he still has a long way to go, to consolidate himself and of course if he does a good job he will achieve it, but I think he is not one of those who is going to lead the sector today," he mentioned.

Our policy in general has been not to respond to disqualifications, because we believe that the party, and in general, what we have to do is contribute to unity in diversity, but with unity. That is, how we all work together without disqualifying each other in pursuit of a collective project.

Look, I understand that in some way those who have been part of what I call the center-right of the binomial, that is, a center-right that was used to co-govern from the minority, it is very uncomfortable having to stop being a containment dam to start being the future, change. I am probably 20 or 25 years apart with those leaders, so our generational task is to offer the country a project for the future and change, not a containment dam. But at the same time, when one wants to make a project for the future, it is not enough to say general ideas, but rather one has to offer a well-constructed, well-armed project, and that is what we are doing in RN, or at least from my humble trench.

A new cabinet

-What did you think of the cabinet announced by the president-elect? There are precisely a lot of young people and it also has a lot of women.

I think it's a good photo, in the sense that you have a lot of women, which I think is valuable. I believe that we have to incorporate women en masse in all fields of society. I also appreciate that it is a young cabinet, because I believe that a change of cycle is coming in Chile, which is marked because the transition of the '90s is an emotionally distant topic for my generation, and therefore does not define a definition of what what one does or does not do. But although I find that it was a good photo, so far the film has not gone very well.

-In what way?

A little later we already have certain internal conflicts, finally a minister appears questioned for certain mistreatment at work. The truth is that they have not been able to reach an agreement with their secretary. So, I would tell you that it is a good photo but you have to see how the film develops, because governments are not a photo, they are a collective work film that up to now has not been seen very well.

Shadow cabinet

-A few days ago Francisco Chahuán raised the idea of ​​designating "alternate ministers" to the official heads to oversee their work, emulating the "shadow cabinet" of the Kingdom United. Do you share this idea?

It is an idea that has a purpose, which is to understand that the center-right has to take action. We do not get anything by saying that we are against everything, because that right is destined to fail. The bet is to promote young faces and women of the party who can contribute to the sectoral agendas of the government, and that tomorrow the Minister of Labor has a counterpart in RN that not only says "no" to everything, but also It is capable of offering projects in labor matters, the same in the field of health, the same in social development, etc. It is about how RN takes the lead and the leading role in generating proactive agendas from the world of the sector and relates positively to the social ministers of the incoming government, obviously supervising and demanding but also proposing. That is what we want to build in a center-right that is not a containment dam but is a proposal for the future.

-Playing a bit with fiction, who would you name as alternate minister in the Ministry of the Interior?

You know who would do extraordinarily well? Diego Paulsen.

-Why?

Because he has the ability to have the firmness to impose the right things and order, but he also has the ductility to be able to work with different people. I think he would make a great Home Secretary.

-And in the case of the Ministry General Secretariat of Government?

Good question. I believe that a great spokeswoman would be Paula Labra, a young deputy who has just taken office in Linares. And I think that María José Gatica, also a young senator who won in the Los Ríos region, would also do very well. I think it would be fantastic to have a woman assuming that role not only as spokesperson but also in political coordination of the government.

-And in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs?

I'd have to think about it a bit more, but I'd imagine someone with international experience. Look, I'm going to tell you the following. In this country it was established that the opposition had to deny everything to the government, and that is a cavernous way of understanding the opposition.

The opposition in modern countries is an opposition that does not oppose everything per se, as we experience in this government, but rather an opposition that oversees and demands but also proposes, so our proposal by the way from the Foreign Ministry: that it would be good if someone like Aldo Casinelli, for example, an RN official, a young man and former executive director of the Libertad Institute, could collaborate with the future minister from a different perspective. I believe that a key issue is not being understood here: the countries are moving forward with agreements, and the incoming government, whether it likes it or not, is going to have to negotiate with the opposition because we manage half of the congress.

Situation in RN

-What is the position of RN today? Mario Desbordes himself has said that he is analyzing a possible resignation from the party, which he will define in March. In turn, they have seen bickering inside.

What we are doing is an internal process that I would say is marked by three big ideas. The first is to build the party from the bases and we have called that "RN that we want" because it is a process where we have been in four regions, unfortunately the pandemic did not allow us to continue.

We met with the grassroots, with the party members themselves, because we are convinced that the future of the party cannot be decided by a small group behind closed doors in Santiago, but that it has to be built with the grassroots, and that It is working very well, we have already received more than 500 inputs from specific people, party members, who have told us "this is what we want to privilege, these are the ideas we want to implement." So the first thing is a participatory RN.

Second, a modern RN, we are going to digitize the party, we are going to have a web application for party members, we are looking to generate an intranet for its leaders.

And third, we are going to make a renovation from the point of view of reaching the world of young people, the world of women, the world of native peoples. We are the only right-wing party and of the different coalitions to have a vice president of indigenous people, who is dedicated specifically to the issue. Look, we are by definition "builders", we are dedicated to building the party, not destroying the party, and therefore you will never hear any words of disqualification from us regarding anyone, because we are convinced that everyone fits here but they have to understand that the party has to change in order to accommodate itself to this new cycle that is beginning, and the truth is that we are very strongly moving in that direction.

Renewal in the party

-Some have argued that there is a lack of renewal on the right. Do you agree with that assessment?

I think a new cycle is starting in Chile, a cycle where we have a more empowered citizenry, where we have a middle class that wants us to let them have freedoms but also security, where many uncivilized people still subsist in their poverty and in their misery, and therefore this new cycle obviously requires people who are connected to this new cycle. I believe that this applies to all parties and to all organizations, I believe that it is time for renewal. Now, young people are not going to be given their spaces, because they have to earn them. And in that, at least in RN, we are going to open a lot of space so that young people can participate in such a way as to build these platforms.

And in what position is the right, considering the results they have had in the recent elections? What is the self-criticism that should be done in the sector?

I would say a mix between optimism and self-criticism. Let's start with the optimism part. In May, what some polemicists told us is that we were going to have less than a third of the congress and that the center-left and the left were going to pass in the second round.

Given this scenario, we decided to rearticulate the coalition, we made an intelligent electoral strategy and the result in November was that the center-right had half of the Senate, something that had not happened since '90, almost half of the Chamber of deputies, and the truth is that the government of Gabriel Boric is a minority within the chamber of deputies. And there was also a second round in which two different projects actually competed. We are much better off than in May and there is at least half of Chilean men and women who want different ideas from those often represented by the Broad Front and the Communist Party.

Now I'm going with the self-criticism. Look, when I sometimes hear this discussion that takes place in my sector about adjectives, that we are a liberal right, a conservative right or a social-Christian right, all this fight over adjectives I find it a bit ridiculous, because in truth I I would tell you that we are an absent right. That is the adjective that fits us today, we are a right that is not where power is being built for the future, which are social organizations, neighborhoods, students, the world of attorneys.

So, for me at least, the big self-criticism is believing that you can do well electorally when you build something a few months in advance and have a good marketing strategy. That is not the policy that is coming, but the one that is coming is the policy that is built in a collective project, where many social agents are incorporated into the task, and that therefore we offer a project for the future to Chileans. We have to get out of the places of comfort in which we are often in the center-right, and go out to meet a new citizenry that is emerging and that can perfectly tune in with the values ​​of the center-right to the extent that we can get where we are. they are.

-And what about the social right?

I greatly value the fact that there are people who have social intuition, for me the main referent in the social right is Senator Manuel José Ossandón. When I left as a representative, he offered me to write a book on this subject and I basically wrote about why freedom could not be a privilege for those who can afford it, but a floor for all. I think Ossandón is a very interesting figure because he manages to make the social story have good electoral results. Here we get nothing by raising a social story if we do not have good electoral results, so I really hope that he will be president of the Senate and I hope he has the courage to defend the importance of Chile having two chambers for the future.

-You mentioned what happened in the second round. Regarding this, do you feel closer to José Antonio Kast or do you feel more akin to the more “traditional” right?

I feel part of a generation of young people who value what has been achieved in the last 30 years, but who feel that my political sector and the leadership in general did not have the empathy or the sense of urgency or the necessary attitude to make the social reforms on time, and that has opened space for totally radical looks, that if anyone had any doubts, it is a matter of looking at the last days of the convention.

I feel part of a solidary right, which is going to put the principle of solidarity as the central thing in its political action; I feel part of a reformist right wing in which we are going to confront those who want a revolution on the one hand, and those who want immobility on the other, through forceful reforms, and I feel part of a young center-right that has We have to go out and take the spaces to rebel against the indolence of some and before the refoundational desires of others.

Evaluation of the convention

-What do you think of the operation of the constitutional convention in these first months of work?

I hope that the convention understands the tremendous responsibility it has with Chile, and that responsibility is to build a constitution that does not continue to be a source of conflict, and up to now, what we are seeing is that a minority, which conjuncturally had a good electoral result, is trying to impose an agenda that is not the majority and much less representative of the different realities of the country. And therefore, I believe that Gabriel Boric has a tremendous responsibility because he cannot be a reformist in Congress and a revolutionary in the convention. Either Boric embodies his restraint in both instances or he wants to say that what is here is a tremendous double standard.

I hope he takes his leadership at the convention and makes his conventioners understand that it is a moderate reform project and not a project to start the country from scratch. When one observes that they want to eliminate the Constitutional Court, that they want to end the Senate, that they want to end the mining concessions, one thinks that these people do not want to build a constitution for Chile but rather that they want to build a constitution for a small sector of Chile that It has a very ideologized look at how the future has to be built, and the truth is that I don't know of a country in which that ideologized look has produced nothing but failure, sadness and poverty.