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Weekly Report - 27 October 2011 (WR-11-43)

CHILE: Fault lines of democracy shift

Some 60 protesters burst into the old congress building in Santiago on 20 October disrupting a committee meeting attended by the education minister, Felipe Bulnes, to demand that legislators amend the constitution to allow for binding referendums on education and the environment. The president of the senate, Guido Girardi, on the Left of the opposition Concertación, refused to have the protesters forcefully removed by the police: he declared congress a public institution that belonged to the people. In doing so Girardi was making a populist gesture as his coalition gropes for relevance amid the government’s long trial of strength with student protesters. He also set a disturbing precedent in a democracy by indirectly encouraging any interest group to invade congress to pursue its goals.

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