Latest Breaking News

sandensea

(21,648 posts) Sun Dec 17, 2017, 07:45 PM Dec 2017

Sebastian Pinera winner of Chile's presidential election

Source: The Guardian

Sebastián Piñera won Chile’s presidency on Sunday, with his centre-left opponent Alejandro Guillier conceding the election as Chile followed other South American nations in a political turn to the right.

With 98.44% of the ballots counted, the billionaire conservative, 68, had won 54.57% in the runoff vote, to 45.43% for senator Guillier, a wider than expected margin in a race that pollsters had predicted would be tight.

Months of campaigning exposed deepening rifts among the country’s once bedrock centre left, an opening former president Piñera leveraged to rally more centrist voters around his proposals to cut corporate taxes, double economic growth and eliminate poverty in the world’s top copper producer.

In his concession speech at a hotel in downtown Santiago, Guillier called his loss a “harsh defeat” and urged his supporters to defend the progressive reforms of outgoing President Michelle Bachelet’s second term. Many Chileans had viewed the election as a referendum on her policies, which focused on reducing inequality by making education more affordable and overhauling the tax code.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/17/chileans-cast-their-ballot-in-decisive-presidential-runoff

6 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Sebastian Pinera winner of Chile's presidential election (Original Post) sandensea Dec 2017 OP

YEAH! I'm for "double economic growth and eliminate poverty" too!!!!! :-) progree Dec 2017 #1

Next door, Temer's Brazil and Macri's Argentina - both trickle-down cheerleaders - are a mess sandensea Dec 2017 #3

Since the Chilean constitution doesn't allow a president to run for a second consecutive term... regnaD kciN Dec 2017 #2

True - although the center-left Concertacion governed for 20 years btw 1990 and 2010. sandensea Dec 2017 #6

What a shame people in high places conspired to run this clown again. Judi Lynn Dec 2017 #4

It is. sandensea Dec 2017 #5

progree

(10,911 posts)

1. YEAH! I'm for "double economic growth and eliminate poverty" too!!!!! :-)

Reply to sandensea (Original post)

Sun Dec 17, 2017, 07:52 PM

Dec 2017

Last edited Sun Dec 17, 2017, 09:46 PM - Edit history (1)

Months of campaigning exposed deepening rifts among the country’s once bedrock centre left, an opening former president Piñera leveraged to rally more centrist voters around his proposals to cut corporate taxes, double economic growth and eliminate poverty in the world’s top copper producer.

Is this what it takes to win elections now, wonderful-sounding non-specific broad general promises of a better economy? (like in the U.S. of A.?)

sandensea

(21,648 posts)

3. Next door, Temer's Brazil and Macri's Argentina - both trickle-down cheerleaders - are a mess

Reply to progree (Reply #1)

Sun Dec 17, 2017, 08:01 PM

Dec 2017

But Piñera was clever: he used his relatively moderate record during his first term in 2010-14 to lull many voters into thinking he's more of a centrist.

Here's hoping Piñera stays on a moderate course. If he tries to go full Macri on them, Chileans will definitely give him a reality check.

regnaD kciN

(26,045 posts)

2. Since the Chilean constitution doesn't allow a president to run for a second consecutive term...

Reply to sandensea (Original post)

Sun Dec 17, 2017, 07:55 PM

Dec 2017

...it seems they tend to flip back and forth -- first a progressive, then a conservative, then back again, over and over.

sandensea

(21,648 posts)

6. True - although the center-left Concertacion governed for 20 years btw 1990 and 2010.

Reply to regnaD kciN (Reply #2)

Sun Dec 17, 2017, 09:10 PM

Dec 2017

They took Chile from a dictatorial backwater with 40%+ extreme poverty, to one of the most - if not the most - developed countries in Latin America.

Unfortunately, as voters' living standards rise they tend to become more right-wing. They become status-conscious, and the old "Moi? I vote with the rich, not the poor" mentality sets in. Human nature, alas.

In any case, I expect we'll see a much more moderate right-winger in Piñera than we're seeing with trigger-happy kleptocrats like Brazil's Temer or Argentina's Macri.

Piñera did govern as a centrist conservative during his earlier term, and he'd do well to remain on that moderate course I think.

Judi Lynn

(160,591 posts)

4. What a shame people in high places conspired to run this clown again.

Reply to sandensea (Original post)

Sun Dec 17, 2017, 08:11 PM

Dec 2017

Last edited Sun Dec 17, 2017, 09:19 PM - Edit history (1)

His popularity dropped to 22% at one time in his earlier term.

First "beeyunaire" (billionaire) as a Chilean President, as Trump would say. Attended Harvard, etc., etc., etc.

His Wiki. for what it's worth, if anyone can stand to read it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebasti%C3%A1n_Pi%C3%B1era

sandensea

(21,648 posts)

5. It is.

Reply to Judi Lynn (Reply #4)

Sun Dec 17, 2017, 09:02 PM

Dec 2017

His Bank of Talca heist back in 1982 - the seed money on which he built his later fortune - should have been enough to disqualify him.

Let's hope Piñera doesn't turn out to be another Macri. Chileans don't want to go through Argentina is going through at the moment.

It's up to him to govern as a moderate. A well-run country like Chile expects no less.

Reply to this discussion