He had a month to win the undecided vote in the first round and now Sebastian Pinera
can celebrate the victory in the presidential elections in Chile. He is co-owner of Lam, the largest airline in Latin America, he is a wealthy
bussiness man owner of a television channel, with millions of dollars of
investment and participation in the most successful football club in
his country. Pinera, to the Italians, seem to remember someone.
His political career began long ago and he has already spent several years in the Senate. Now he can celebrate a historic victory, because Chile returns to have
a president from a right party after 20 years, putting aside all the bitter memories
of the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.
The taboo has been overcome. The sad numbers are still there, 3,000 people killed or disappeared into thin air and about 28,000 tortured. Pinera, however, is different: he comes from a right-wing party, but he voted in 1988 to end the
Pinochet dictatorship.
Over the years he has learned all the techniques to win voters and he continued to make promises in the election campaign: jobs, street lighting, security, war on drug traffickers, unconditional support to those who are defenseless, ill or unemployed. He did not have to talk about economy because the outgoing President Michelle Bachelet
(who will end her term in March with a high approval rating in the chilean population) has almost completely overcome the economic crisis in Chile. Today she was among the first to congratulate the new president. "People have democratically elected Pinera as president and I hope that Chile
will continue in its social progress that we have developed
over the past 20 years," said Bachelet.
The new tenant of La Moneda, who made his fortune by introducing credit
cards to Chile, in just over a month should prove to be able to bring
that change he so much talked about in the electoral campaign. "It's like opening the windows of your home to let fresh air come in", he said to win the voters while he was illustrating his objectives. Now, however, he really need to let come in that cold air in the Chileans' house and many are wondering already how much he will be under control of ex Pinochet's circle, even
as regards the appointment of ministers or key men in his executive. The Cilean right party come back to the government and in just a few months we will
see what kind of influence it will have on the South America political geography.
Chile elections, the ballot in January
Marianna Lepore
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