President Sebastián Piñera is a supremely talented businessman, who can turn his hand to almost anything – he is a qualified pilot and a deep sea diver - but politics requires a special ingredient that he lacks. This is the central thesis of a new book on Piñera entitled “Por que no me quieren?” (“Why don’t they love me?”). Piñera is not perplexed about this publicly, of course, but privately he must wonder what he has to do to end a longstanding student protest which has decimated his popularity. He appeared live on television and radio on 29 September to present the 2012 budget, which includes a massive increase in education funding – but this has not done the trick. Students, who flounced out of talks on 5 October, retain widespread public support.
Piñera’s presentation of the 2012 budget was clearly designed to let the public know that he was making a big gesture on education. He pointed out that education would absorb 25% of the increase in public spending next year: the US$60bn budget proposal is up 5% on 2011; education was allocated US$11.65bn of this total, up 7.6% on this year. This would be the largest sum spent by a Chilean government on education in history. Piñera also stressed that the US$4bn education fund he promised in July would complement the education budget.
Piñera claimed that the budget would propel “a great leap in quality, access and financing” for education. He stopped some way short of promising the free education for all, which is demanded by the protesting students, but he did stress that there would be a big increase in grants for the poorest and emerging middle class families at all levels of the education system. Student leaders were unconvinced. They expressed their conviction that the 2012 budget was still insufficient to provide free, quality education for all, and they were in no mood to compromise after meeting the education minister, Felipe Bulnes, on 5 October.
Bulnes left the meeting saying that the government had shown a willingness to make important steps in providing free education for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. He said student leaders were intransigent in demanding “100% free education”. The national teachers’ union, Colegio de Profesores de Chile (CPC), is preparing to carry out a non-binding public referendum on the issue of free education for all on 7 and 8 October to measure support for the protests. Opinion polls suggest this is around 80%. The CPC says Chileans over the age of 14 will be able to take part in local venues or over the Internet.
Cracking down on protests
The government is losing patience with the students. After masked youths clashed with the police on 30 September, the interior minister, Rodrigo Hinzpeter, stressed that “these are not true revolutionaries fighting for a higher good”. However, the government cannot fly in the face of a strong public expression of support for the students’ cause. Instead, it has decided to send a bill to congress to toughen up the penal code which it appears to hope will deter protesters.
Under the proposed legislation, students could face prison sentences of up to three years for taking part in the illegal seizure of schools or universities, many of which have been periodically “occupied” by students during their protest actions since May.
Student leaders were joined by members of the left-wing opposition Concertación in criticising the bill which they argued was designed to stifle legitimate protest. The bill complicated the talks on 5 October between the government and student leaders, who denounced it as “a reflection of this government’s authoritarian vision”.
The bill would also increase punishments for looting, which took place on a relatively wide scale after the earthquake in February 2010 and again on 24 September during a power cut in various regions. Piñera also claimed the bill would “end the revolving door of justice”, which he said was allowing criminals to walk free. It would also create a public register of fugitives of justice, and those guilty of serious sexual assaults, and broaden the remit of the interior ministry to become the interior and public security ministry, as well as creating a new deputy ministry for crime prevention.
- 2012 budget
President Piñera claimed that the emphasis of the 2012 budget had been placed on education; health; employment; support for the elderly, small and medium sized businesses (Pymes) and the regions; and anti-poverty programmes. “The 2012 budget has been designed especially with the needs and aspirations of our middle class and most vulnerable sectors in mind,” he said.
