After 13 hours the leaders of Chile Let’s go (UDI, RN and Evópoli) began to arrive at the RN headquarters in Antonio Varas for a new day of negotiations for the candidates for mayors and governors of the October elections. The leaders were present there Javier Macaya (UDI), Rodrigo Galilea (RN) and Gloria Hutt (Evópoli), in addition to the general secretaries Andrea Balladares (RN), Juan Carlos Gonzalez and Juan Antonio Coloma (UDI), and other negotiators such as Felipe Salaberry (UDI).
The coalition continued to try to unblock an agreement to find single candidates in around 280 municipalities, as representatives of the bloc have been announcing for days. However, at the time of going to press, the leaders were still negotiating without reaching an agreement.
The idea of making an announcement comes from weeks ago. However, they have not managed to have white smoke, but they convey that they are under pressure to achieve a consensus before the ruling party achieves its own, a sector that only needs to clear its letters to regional governors.
Added to this are the pressures that exist from the Republican Party with statements from its leaders, who criticize that Chile Vamos does not inform them of the agreed names, and therefore there is no progress in resolving single opposition candidacies in some key areas.
During the afternoon there was an atmosphere of stress and tension. One of the negotiators, the former undersecretary of the Interior Rodrigo Ubilla (RN), pushed his hair back with both hands to clear his head, while Coloma was also seen speaking emphatically. Several leaders were talking on the phone and wandering through the rooms of the “Presidente Sebastián Piñera” headquarters of RN.
Previously, and from the place, Macaya had downplayed the idea of reaching an agreement during the day. “We are making a lot of progress, we are hopeful that we will reach a good port, hopefully today, if not tomorrow, but without a deadline,” he said, adding that “today is a time when Chile has other concerns. Being in talks, political negotiations, seems like a contradiction. Therefore, we do it with a lot of respect, without fighting. We have to do it with the utmost empathy regarding other much more important concerns that our country is experiencing today.”
Among the negotiators they comment that there was around 90% progress in the communes, and that Chile Vamos would arrive with a proposal to carry out surveys between the UDI, RN and Evópoli to first resolve the knots that exist as a sector. There it was mentioned that there would be surveys for communes such as Arica, The Serena, The Angels and Palmillas. After that, polls would be offered for the other opposition parties such as the Yellows, Democrats and the Republican Party, in areas where there is no consensus such as Recoleta and Conception.
At the close of this edition they reported that probably this Friday the announcement with the names settled will finally be made. What has delayed the announcement, they say in the sector, is that the parties are refining the details of the political balances so that both the UDI and RN appear with the same number of zones. A final review of all the names considered is also being done.
Macaya also commented that part of the difficulties of the process is that “we are talking a lot, we have the best disposition among ourselves and in the face of the conversation that has to take place with Democrats, Yellows, Republicans, and the Social Christian Party. There are many actors with whom we have a lot of pending conversations and for that we have to make decisions, we have to confirm candidates, we have to make decisions that are often painful, that have to do with lowering candidates, but that’s what we’re working on.”
With the announcement they are preparing, the right hopes to calm the criticism and clear some space for other parties. For example, they are considering giving Maipú and Renca to Democrats, while the RN is considering the option of handing Valparaíso over to the Republicans.
At the end of the meeting, Galilea maintained that “we can say that there are no longer critical knots between us. Some communes in the Los Lagos and Aysén Region remain to be decided, but there are no relevant critical nodes. “We are focused on seeing, defining and exploring all the alternatives that we are going to discuss with the parties outside the pact.”
Asked about the agreed upon communes, Coloma avoided answering with a fixed number, while highlighting Marcela Sabat (RN) as a possible candidate for the governorship of the Metropolitan Region.
 agreement announcement due to municipal negotiations){kind=link}