At 10:00 this morning, the ruling parties were called to a meeting at the headquarters of the Christian Democracy (DC), in the center of Santiago. The goal was one: analyze the results of the primary elections that were held yesterday.
Upon arrival, the presidents of Democratic Revolution, Social Convergencehe Communist Party and the Radical PartyWithout hiding their smiles, they spent several minutes answering questions from the press. Sunday’s results favored them and, for the same reason, they were happy. The radicals even attended the meeting with the candidate who won in Calera de Tango.
The scenario was different for the D.C. and the Socialist Party (PS). The representatives of the phalanx, without giving statements before the meeting, waited on the second floor of the headquarters for the others to arrive. Meanwhile, the general secretary of the PS, Camilo Escalonaentered and climbed quickly while Lautaro Carmona (PC) spoke.
For both groups, the results of the elections were uncomfortable. Although the PS managed to prevail in 13 communes at the national level – and was even crowned as the party with the most votes – the truth is that he lost the great battles he set out to do: Valparaíso, Talca, Providencia and La Granja. In the latter, even the former president Michelle Bachelet He participated in the campaign, but the effort was in vain.
This morning, once the meeting in DC concluded, Step He said that “we are going to take time to take stock. On Wednesday we have a political commission, we are going to look at the numbers. We are going to give ourselves some time, there is no rush.” “As socialists, we would have expected better results in the emblematic communes. Now we only have to face the election with the greatest possible unity, becoming an alternative to municipal and gubernatorial projects,” added the deputy. Daniel Mellohead of the socialist bench.
The case of the DC is even more critical. They won in three of the 18 communes in which they participated: La Granja, Penco and Pitrufquén. and they lost Peñalolenone of the four municipalities that is considered emblematic by them, since it was in their hands since 2004.
With that result on the table, the WhatsApp group that shares the DC national council quickly became active. “Orrego and the government worked directly so that we lost Peñalolén today. In fact, there were automated phone calls from Orrego asking for the vote for (José) Ruiz, Wednesday and Thursday. It is urgent that we meet to analyze the situation of the party with a view to the municipal elections and then the parliamentary elections.“said the national advisor Nicolas Preuss in that space.
For its part, Marcial Silvaalso a national advisor, wrote in the same chat: “We must ask ourselves an internal question: was all the electoral information at hand (…) before making the decision to bring a candidate? For example, the case of Peñalolén. The RD councilor had already competed against Carolina Leitao and had obtained 30% of the votes. Ruiz’s incursion, supported by regional governor Orrego and Carolina Leitao, implies the division of votes. Sometimes We are betting on a candidate who does not have much roots in his sector”.
Consulted by this means, the president of the DC in the Metropolitan Region, Rodrigo Albornozwarned that “insisting on an agreement with the left beyond the concertationist border only brings about the loss of profile and punishment of our electorate. The results anticipate bad news for next October 27. It’s time to correct and rectify, I still believe we can rectify”.
“We would have liked to have had a better result. We defended four municipalities and held three. Peñaollén was changed for Pitrufquén, that was not ideal,” added the vice president. Gianni Rivera. And he added: “We have to make a definition, it is time to do it: what role does the DC play in political life today? Are we an opposition party or are we a government party? “It cannot be that we are in the middle, that has no logic, it has no clarity for the voters or for the militants.”
Others in DC are less alarmist. For example, Senator Francisco Huenchumilla, who is also the first vice president of the community, told this medium that “the DC was only played in three communes: La Granja, Peñalolén and Penco.” In that sense, he appreciated that the party “added a new one, which is Pitrufquén in La Araucanía.”
In the case of Peñalolenthe loss that hurts the most in the ranks of the Decé, Huenchumilla argued that “the scenario changed in the middle of the electoral process, since the mayor nominated her own candidate and then left the party. It was very difficult with a party broken by the mayor herself for a positive result to be achieved.”.
This afternoon, after the meeting with the ruling party, the national secretary of the DC, Alejandra Krauss, spoke about the results. At a press point at his party headquarters, he emphasized that “When you are willing to compete, you are willing to win and lose. (…). We sought to persist with our territories in three places, and we achieved that in three places the DC was supported by the rest of the political forces.”
Last night’s result reinforced a latent fear that affects both the Democratic Socialism as to the DC: that the other parties of the pact have an appetite to compete against them in the election of regional governors, whose candidates have not yet been defined.
In fact, this morning Carmona He emphasized that they will seek to have candidacies “in the places where we have an electoral presentation that is well worth considering. On that basis, allow the PC, due to its ascendancy and work together, to achieve one or two governorships at the national level.”
The position of the PC helmsman is strongly resisted in the DC, since they are betting on leading Claudio Orrego to re-election. However, he made it a condition that it be the only letter of the pact. Something that, for now, the PC questions.
