A true “Royal Rumble” seemed – until last week – the race for the Municipality of Santiago. That is, a wrestling match – followed by multiple followers – in which up to 30 contestants enter the ring and where there is finally one winner. This is what those who closely follow the issue of the municipal elections in October say.
In fact, until Friday the possible figures for a contest were the current mayor Irací Hassler as a candidate from the ruling party and, at least, four possible contenders from the opposition: Mario Desbordes, Sebastián Sichel, Rodrigo Delgado, for Chile Vamos, and Aldo Duque, for the Social Christian Party and a sector of the Republican Party.
The municipal competition in Santiago is historically considered the mother of all battles. This is because the records since 2008 – when Pablo Zalaquett (UDI) defeated former mayor Jaime Ravinet (ex-DC) – show that the electoral pact that managed to win the seat of the highest communal authority has obtained, the following year, a victory in the presidential elections.
However, the opposition – after a series of rounds in a ring, where the candidates for the title of candidate to finally compete with Hassler rose and fell –, after confusing debates and delays, ended up clearing their candidate this Tuesday, once their candidate was made official. letter: Mario Desbordes. Opposition leaders point to The counter that there was a long and confusing journey to reach that officialization.
Chile Vamos had a complex scenario to choose its candidate, although the debate focused on finding the best-looking candidate to compete with the current Mayor Hassler.
In this framework, the former Minister of the Interior, Rodrigo Delgado – they maintain in the UDI – did not feel comfortable for a contest, after the defeat of his candidacy as constitutional advisor. Therefore he got out of the ring without problems.
The focus of greatest tension was on the candidacy of Sebastián Sichel, who got into the ring and a few days later got out because he did not want to compete in primaries, and then got back up and, finally, on Saturday he was permanently dropped by Chile Vamos.
According to what they say, until Friday night, Sichel had planned to announce his candidacy on Sunday in two interviews. However, given the fear of Chile Vamos that he would drop out of the race again, and due to the polls that showed him almost tied with Desbordes, the political weight of the latter prevailed.
This is how the announcement by the president of Renovación Nacional, Rodrigo Galilea, emerged over the weekend, that the former Minister of Defense was the bloc’s candidate. The announcement woke Sichel up early and it fell badly on the UDI, because RN had not coordinated it with the unions. Given this, they reacted by stating that he was only the candidate of that party and that the UDI had to define a candidacy this week. An uncertainty that ended this Tuesday, with the ratification of Desbordes as a letter.
But it wasn’t easy. On Friday night Chile Vamos was informed that Sichel would continue in the race, so the RN board and the mayor of Providencia, with whom he was somewhat close, called him to tell him that he would not be a candidate. And that he defined himself as Desbordes. However, they claim that Sichel did not answer any calls or text messages. But various leaders, including Matthei, sent him a harsh message so that he should not make any announcement or they would be removed from office.
“It seems to us that Mario Desbordes is a good name, it is sufficiently transversal to reflect the interest of the sector and fulfill the objective of bringing one person so that the votes are concentrated,” said the president of Evópoli, Gloria Hutt. Sebastián Sichel finally had to also lower his interviews and stop advertising him. When consulted by his team, they indicated that they would not refer to what happened: “I’ll pass for now,” said one of his main promoters.
In sectors of the coalition they maintain that Desbordes had an advantage: the support of the Republican Party, which refused to support Sichel. “Mario represents the order and seriousness necessary to move the commune forward and Duque is not a threat to Desbordes, but clearly, the sector that has two candidates, that can reduce the vote that Mario could get. I hope that with Aldo Duque, generosity on his part prevails and we can all rally behind Desbordes’ candidacy, because there is a greater good, which is to recover the commune,” underlines deputy Arturo Longton (RN).
His counterpart from the UDI, Jorge Alessandri, mentions that Santiago is not a commune with easy goals to achieve. “We were used to a clean, orderly, very lively center, and that is what we have to recover. Irací Hassler in these four years has made the center more dangerous, dirtier, emptier, and that the prices are the cheapest since the 80s. The new mayor has to revitalize, clean, organize and, of course, bring security, that tourists dare to return to the center, which is our historic center,” stressed the deputy.
The letter from the ruling party
The latest polls place the communist mayor above the opposition candidates: Desbordes and Duque. In the ruling party they point out that if the right is divided, the figure of the PC has important possibilities. However, if there is only one candidate, the options become uphill.
“For the ruling party, keeping Santiago is going to be a strong and complex fight, but we hope to keep it (…). The right has several candidates, but they may not be able to agree (…). Until now the result of the commune of Santiago is open and we aspire to maintain that municipality,” said the person in charge of the electoral team and vice president of the PS, Eduardo Bermúdez, a few weeks ago.
Santiago – one of the 10 communes with the most voters – is the place where re-election has been an impossible mission for his last three predecessors: Zalaquett (UDI), Carolina Tohá (PPD) and Felipe Alessandri (UDI).
The municipal management of Irací Hassler, in just over two years, has faced a series of controversies that have not completely dissipated: the crime situation; municipal permits for street vendors that he gave and had to withdraw; a health summary for tons of garbage in the streets, after the strike of municipal officials who accused “mistreatment”; The failed purchase of the former Sierra Bella clinic, where the Public Ministry is investigating an overpricing, with her reluctance to hand over her municipal cell phone to the PDI in a controversial incident within the framework of the investigation, constitute some of the questions that fall on the first mayor. communist of the Municipality of Santiago.
The emergence of Aldo Duque
In the UDI they say they have no doubts: “Duke is not elected.” However, so far the independent lawyer, supported by the Christian Social Party and a sector of Republicans, is catching up with Mayor Hassler in the opinion polls. According to Chile Vamos polls, today Hassler has 22%, while Duque 18%. However, the arrival of a national figure and former minister like Desbordes would imply that he quickly position himself over Duque.
The defense lawyer for several entertainment figures and also some drug traffickers, did not respond to calls from The counter.
Aldo Duque, the leader of the Social Christian Party, which also has the support of deputy Johannes Kaiser, has stated that he will not lower his name in the face of Desbordes’ nomination, even though various surveys studied by the opposition parties show that, if he has two candidacies, Hassler would be re-elected.
Despite this, those close to Duque comment that he was not going to give up if he competed with Sichel, but that in a contest with the former Minister of Defense “it will have to be evaluated.” Likewise, the PSC understands that the main focus is to defeat Hassler, which is why Chile Vamos and Republicanos are expected to begin negotiations with Aldo Duque in the coming weeks.
