Chilean Communist Party is ready to join Bachelet’s cabinet
The Communist Party of Chile has officially announced that it is ready to be part of Michelle Bachelet’s administration. The presence of a communist minister in Bachelet’s cabinet has been a topic of debate in Chile since Dec. 15, when she won the presidency for the second time.
(Read “Bachelet upholds right to tap a communist as minister” in Progreso Weekly of Dec. 19.)
“We have decided to express to the President-elect our willingness to participate in the next government,” said the party’s chairman, Guillermo Teillier, after a meeting of the CP’s Central Committee on Saturday (Dec. 21).
Teillier said the CP contributed to Bachelet’s presidential campaign, helped draft her program and was behind her victory, so “we have the right to belong” in her administration.
He called the party’s decision “historic” because the CP had not been part of any administration since the administration of Salvador Allende (1970-1973), which was toppled by a military coup.
Teillier then emphasized that the party’s availability was not offered in terms of a quota.
“Of course, this is a willingness expressed by the Communist Party, because who decides who occupies posts in the government or doesn’t — we understand that clearly — is the President of the Republic,” he said. “That is why we are not going to make any demands about a post at this or that level, of this or that nature,” he added.
The Communist Party was among several leftist organizations that formed the coalition New Majority, which backed Bachelet’s presidential campaign. Bachelet won 47 percent of the votes in the first round and 62 percent in the second, against rightist candidate Evelyn Matthei. Bachelet was president of Chile from 2006 to 2010.
The chairman of the Socialist Party, deputy Osvaldo Andrade, supported the CP’s decision and called for unity in the New Majority coalition.
“We need to end this string of statements as to who will be in charge of what, who will be loyal to whom […] The magnitude of the task entrusted to us by the citizens leaves us no time for such pettiness,” he said.
The initial reaction of the center-right Christian Democratic Party was conciliatory.
“The political parties that uphold a candidacy and support a program must later take responsibility for it, and the way to take responsibility is to be fully in the government, so we’re not surprised by the [CP’s] decision,” said Fuad Chahín, a member of the CDP’s national committee.
“Yes, we do have differences with the Communist Party,” he went on. “We’re not going to convince them that Cuba is a dictatorship and they’re not going to convince us that [Cuba] is a democracy, but we have points of coincidence with the President-elect’s program and that’s where we should concentrate our action in the next few years.”
Referring to statements made by a former CDP chairman who decried the possible presence of a communist in the Bachelet government, Chahín said:
“Gutenberg Martínez’s opinion is personal and deserves respect. Probably it’s not the only one inside the CDP, but when we adhered to Michelle Bachelet’s program of governance we did so unconditionally.”
Bachelet is expected to announce her cabinet in mid-January. She takes office in March of next year.
