In Santiago broke out last week in the middle of the day cheers. People went to the window and applauded. A few minutes earlier, the majority of deputies had adopted a law that allows for the Chileans, up to ten percent of their assets in private pension funds to deduct for financial losses due to the Corona pandemic cushion. The bill, which now goes to the Senate, was introduced by the Opposition; some of the voices, however, came from the ranks of the government coalition. The government of President Sebastián Piñera had tried to the last to prevent the adoption of, inter alia, through the Development of a program for direct financial support.
Tjerk Brühwiller
a correspondent for Latin America with headquarters in São Paulo.
F. A. Z. Twitter
But it didn’t help. Even before the pandemic had built up in Chile, a social pressure, the policy leans up in the ranks of the conservative government coalition. Week-long protests had overthrown Chile at the end of the past year into Chaos. Piñera was forced to make numerous concessions to the demands for more welfare state and compensation to accommodate. A referendum on the drafting of a new Constitution was proclaimed, which had to be postponed because of the pandemic on October.
pans rattled, barricades burned
The Coronavirus was the ongoing and violent protests on the street once silenced. Since March, a certain degree of calm has returned in the country, and Piñera was able to distinguish itself in the meantime as a crisis Manager. But at the same time, the crisis has created a new reality, which reinforces the claims of the Chileans even further. The country’s economy will collapse this year of around seven percent. The number of unemployed rises. Many Chileans not to come over the rounds. This also applies to many retirees – and not only since of the pandemic. More than half of all pensioners don’t receive even half the minimum wage. Many pensioners are reliant on state subsidies.
