Weekly Report - 22 November 2007 (INNS 1741-7422)

It has not been an easy week for President Michelle Bachelet. It started off well enough with the government and opposition agreeing on a key education-reform proposal. There was no such bipartisan cooperation, however, over the capital's inefficient transport system, Transantiago. The lower chamber voted, with the support of dissident members of the Democracia Cristiana (DC), to provide the grand total of Ch$1,000 (US$2) for Transantiago in the 2008 budget. On 19 November public sector workers staged a well-attended strike to demand higher salaries and then, a day later, the Senate compounded Bachelet's misery by following the lower chamber's lead on Transantiago.