Weekly Report - 28 April 2011 (WR-11-17)

One of the most powerful arguments used by Chile's President Sebastián Piñera during his electoral campaign last year was that the long-ruling Concertación had run out of gas, undermined by a series of corruption scandals and caught up in party infighting. He promised to freshen up the stale politics of government and root out corruption by means of greater efficiency and transparency. Barely one year after he took office the Unión Demócrata Independiente (UDI), the senior partner in his ruling Coalición por el Cambio, has been tainted by scandals, causing friction with its slightly more junior partner Renovación Nacional (RN). The housing and urban development minister, Magdalena Matte, resigned last week over irregularities, prompting Piñera to call a cabinet meeting to try and regain momentum ahead of his state-of-the-nation address on 21 May.

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