Weekly Report - 09 January 2014 (WR-14-01)

Keeping a lid on the simmering acrimony within the right-wing coalition Alianza por Chile in the wake of the electoral triumph of former president Michelle Bachelet (2006-2010) on 15 December is proving increasingly difficult. But, what is really interesting is monitoring the palpable difficulties experienced by Bachelet’s Nueva Mayoría, a loose electoral alliance of seven parties from across the left of the political spectrum, in defining its future role once she takes office on 11 March. Bachelet herself made a call for unity within the Nueva Mayoría, something which was conspicuous by its absence during her last term in office when she headed the more ideologically attuned, and less unwieldy, quadripartite Concertación.