During these days the former presidential candidate Franco Parisi, of the People’s Party (PDG), returned to Chile from the United States, where he resides, to participate in the public account. During his time in the country, the former flag bearer held a series of conversations with leaders of Chile Vamos (UDI, RN and Evópoli). One of his latest concerns is the municipal and gubernatorial elections in October, in which the PDG’s main claim is Valparaíso, with the candidate for mayor Juan Marcelo Valenzuelawho is close to him and one of the members of the streaming Bad Boys.
After the mayor Jorge Sharp announced that he will not run for re-election, the right’s appetite was whetted, but the region has been tense in the midst of the negotiations for the candidates for those elections, especially in the Governorate of the Valparaíso Region. However, now the PDG is directly facing the Republicans, after the candidates from those two parties – Valenzuela and Rafael Gonzalez (Republican Party) – are so far the only ones in the race after Chile Vamos dropped out of that commune in practice.
This Tuesday the president of the UDI, Senator Javier Macayaheld in Third that unionism will not compete in the area since both applicants are the best looking. Along these lines, he added that the PDG and Republicans have a pending conversation to define a single candidate. He deepened those same sayings this Wednesday, in an interview in El Mercurio de Valparaíso. “I would ask the PDG and Republicans to have a serious conversation regarding Valparaíso,” said the senator.
Added to this is that from RN, although they still support their candidate Leonardo Contrerasprivately they recognize that it is not competitive and that it is rather an option to negotiate what interests them: the Government of Valparaíso, where Luis Pardo has faced the UDI María José Hoffmann for the quota.
In this scenario, in any case, Parisi has not held dialogues with the Republicans in recent times. However, the party founded by José Antonio Kast He also has a special interest in Valparaíso. In that region they have two deputies and they hope that their president, Arturo Squella, compete in next year’s senatorial election. For this reason, until now the possibility of reaching an agreement is difficult.
Along these lines, Parisi raised his tone and issued a threat to the Republicans: If they do not support the PDG as the sole candidate, they will raise candidates in other communes such as Viña del Mar, Concón and Concepción, the latter being key for Republicans, who support James Argo.
The economist assured Third that he held a meeting with Kast before December of last year at the headquarters of the Republican Party, where he would have been guaranteed that the PDG would have no competition in Valparaíso, in circumstances that Republicans are interested in Concepción. Third He consulted the Republicans, however, there was no response.
“In a meeting we held at the headquarters of the Republican Party, I commented on my interest in Valparaíso. Before the plebiscite. And we reached an agreement. So it strikes me that they raise this candidate at this point. In this way, we said that we are going to focus our efforts on Valparaíso, understanding that they are interested in Concepción,” said Parisi.
Along these lines, he stressed that “if we do not reach clarity on the idea of the need for the PDG to be the sole opposition candidate, we already have a candidate in Viña del Mar, in Concón, in Concepción and in Antofagasta.”
In Viña del Mar, for example, they propose Rodrigo Vattuone, and in Concón to Vanessa Ferrer. Parisi – who is the new vice president of the PDG board – does not trust some methods of resolving single candidates, such as surveys, of which he has doubts about his methodology. For the same reason, he is not willing to go down to Valenzuela.
“I hope sanity is reached. Valparaíso is very important. We have discussed it in meetings with Macaya and Galilea. And with Kast too,” said Parisi, adding that “I hope Republicans reconsider and see what we talked about that time.”
And he concluded that “Valparaíso is too important for the PDG, and we are going to take him as a candidate no matter what.”
In Valparaíso, tension has continued to escalate on the right also due to the election of governors. There RN bets on taking Pardo as governor and the UDI insists on Hoffmann. In the store chaired by Rodrigo Galilea, they accuse the unionist general secretary of using the candidacy as a springboard to run for senator in 2025. This has raised concern in deputies who aspire to be senators, such as the RN Andrew Longton.
Along these lines, this Tuesday night the party leadership traveled to Valparaíso along with all the parliamentarians of the community, to give a strong signal of support for Pardo, to the detriment of Hoffmann. In response, Macaya asked RN for respect for Hoffmann and called to “avoid a fratricidal war.”
Thus, there have been a series of crossed statements between both parties, especially between regional leaders. Added to this was that RN was upset that the presidential figure of the UDI, Evelyn Mattheipublicly supported Hoffmann, which led to the mayor of Providencia meeting with Pardo this Tuesday, according to El Mercurio, to avoid being questioned about her lack of partiality.
In RN they emphasize that they deserve the Valparaíso quota because they have parliamentary representation in the region with deputies and senators, unlike the UDI. They also remember complicated cases of union mayors, such as that of Algarrobo, who was expelled from the party for lack of probity. Others accuse Hoffmann of a conflict of interest by being a candidate and general secretary at the same time.
The tension continued to grow this Wednesday morning on Cooperativa radio. There Hoffmann confronted the vice president of RN, Ruggero Cozzi. The latter criticized the general secretary, who responded: “The important thing here is not the parties, but who has the best chance of beating the left. Better, instead of airing internal conversations, we must make a genuine effort for unity.”
