On 20 March Chile’s President Gabriel Boric promulgated his government’s flagship pension reform.
Analysis:
President Boric said the reform, which increases employer pension contributions, raises the guaranteed minimum pension, and modifies the privatised Administradoras de Fondos de Pensiones (AFP) created during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), was “a national achievement” and the fruit of “a lot of dialogue” after “successive governments over ten years” tried but failed to reach an agreement. The main right-wing opposition coalition Chile Vamos, which played an instrumental role in securing the passage of the pension reform through congress, declined to attend the event, which it accused the government of seeking to politicise.
- Boric said the reform would benefit 2.8m pensioners, with increases of between 14% and 35% and a focus on improving pension provision for women, while the state-provided basic universal pension would rise to Cl$250,000 (US$273) a month from Cl$214,000. He was flanked by the finance minister, Mario Marcel, and the labour minister responsible for the pension reform, Jeannette Jara.
- Chile Vamos went as far as to characterise the event as Jara’s unofficial campaign launch. Some of those in attendance did chant ‘Presidenta’ during a 20-minute speech she gave at the cultural centre in Peñalolén, in eastern Santiago, before the signing. Jara hailed “a historic milestone in the development of social security in our country”, while also paying tribute to “the constructive spirit of those, such as the opposition… who made approval of the law possible”.
Looking Ahead: There is a strong chance that Jara will be chosen as the presidential candidate of the left-wing Partido Comunista de Chile (PCCh) off the back of the pension breakthrough. The PCCh central committee is expected to meet to discuss the matter on 22 March. But Daniel Jadue, the firebrand former mayor of Recoleta, a commune in the north of Santiago province, who was placed in preventive detention last June for three months charged with various counts of corruption, fraud, and bribery, before being moved to house arrest, is also hoping to be chosen as the PCCh candidate. He dismissed the pension reform, which he said did not go far enough and should be withdrawn.
