Brazil & Southern Cone - April 2011 (ISSN 1741-4431)

On 19 April the politically well-connected housing minister, Magdalena Matte, resigned. She was the second important politician from the right-wing Unión Democráta Independiente (UDI) to quit in the past month because of allegations of scandal. The first was Jacqueline Van Rysselberghe, the governor of Biobí­o, who resigned, on 2 April, after trying for a year to cling onto her job. The government tried to make a virtue out of Matte's resignation. Worryingly, for the government however, is that these resignations show that it has lost what should be its greatest asset: its ability to set the national agenda.

President Sebastián Piñera's administration has had surprising trouble setting the national agenda. When it took office, in March 2010, after the devastating earthquake in the Biobí­o region, its agenda was clear - reconstruction. The huge, internationally acclaimed, rescue of 33 trapped miners in October 2010 demonstrated effective Chilean policymaking in a crisis. Yet since then, the government's reputation (and popularity) has curdled, partly because of doubts as to whether it is delivering the reconstruction that is needed.

End of preview - This article contains approximately 1830 words.

Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article

Not a Subscriber?

Choose from one of the following options

• Subscribe
• Sign up for a one-time, 14-day trial