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El Ciudadano

Original article: Los 26 votos de una derecha sin escrúpulos: La cacofonía de una oposición sin brújula

By Leopoldo Lavín Mujica

The government of José Antonio Kast celebrated with the fanfare of a victor, but its Neoliberal Package—disguised as the «National Reconstruction Plan»—was passed in the Senate with the exact number of votes needed: 26, no more.

This parliamentary arithmetic is not a victory; it is a confession of weakness. It confirms that the project has little appeal outside the ruling coalition, and its legitimacy hangs by a thread, a reality the president acknowledged by stating, «the law is not approved,» indicating that the real challenges are just beginning, article by article.

What lies ahead is not a technical debate; it’s a stark acknowledgment that this Executive governs exclusively for the business oligarchy funding it, doing so with the cynicism of one who no longer feels the need to hide.

The opposition has clearly seen the face of the monster, but its diagnostic clarity contrasts sharply with its strategic paralysis.

Senator Karol Cariola (PC), unable to explain the gears of oligarchic politics, repeats what every Chilean knows: that Kast’s project «masks, under the guise of reconstruction, a tax reform designed to benefit the usual suspects,» a claim validated by the Autonomous Fiscal Council that pointed out the adjustment fails to rectify fiscal deterioration and only aids the wealthy.

However, while Minister Jorge Quiroz and co-minister Claudio Alvarado fiercely defend this tax cut for the super-rich, the opposition alliance gets lost in its internal conflicts, lacking a unified narrative that extends beyond mere discontent.

The «technical table» offered by Senate President Paulina Núñez (RN) is a crude smokescreen that the government refused on three occasions when the opposition sought it. Congressman Diego Ibáñez laments: «we were denied dialogue for a month, and now, with the vote won by just one vote, they pretend to show openness.»

But the opposition should not limit itself to complaining about delays; it ought to present its own roadmap, because its current strategy resembles an improvised collage rather than a credible counterbalance with a project. The public observes in bewilderment as their representatives waste energy on parallel documents and press releases, while political coherence dissolves in electoral calculations and petty disputes. The popular wisdom calls it a «political circus.»

Senator Pedro Araya (PPD) exemplifies this decomposition perfectly: he abstained to avoid pleasing either the government or his own bloc members, while the Executive returned the favor by fast-tracking a project benefiting notaries. This sordid choreography reveals that, for some, personal loyalty weighs more than programmatic coherence.

The opposition lacks a defined Plan B or a consensus alternative tax proposal that excites the majority, and its chronic disunity becomes the best ally of a government that only needs to scrape by with just enough votes to carry on with its regressive agenda.

As the ecological crisis looms in other regions, Chile will face this summer fires and droughts that disregard political affiliations. This far-right government exacerbates all environmental threats under the pretext of «reactivation.»

Accelerating environmental permits does not mean expediting; it entails recklessly deregulating so that large extractive companies can ravage the territories unchecked. Instead of strengthening institutions, they undermine them; instead of protecting communities, they expose them to plunder. Kast’s promised reconstruction is not for the victims but rather to rebuild the profits of his corporate allies, and the opposition, trapped in its internal labyrinth, fails to formulate a compelling ecological discourse that resonates with the public’s real urgency.

The far-liberal government of Javier Milei serves as a warning that the Chilean people should heed, but it also reflects a shameful mirror for the opposition. If the Omnibus Law failed and had to be pruned from 664 to 279 articles to survive, the global ultraright project still advanced in Argentina.

In the Chilean Congress, while the government negotiates with «swing» senators to uphold the core of its reform—tax cuts and invariability—the opposition bloc negotiates among themselves, failing to impose substantive conditions or a fiscal counterproposal that genuinely redistributes wealth and tackles climate change.

The criticisms from Senator Francisco Huenchumilla regarding the lack of trust and Senator Iván Flores questioning the invariability of tax policy are valid, but they fall short if not accompanied by real political mobilization both inside and outside Congress.

Submitting more than 100 amendments does not equate to influence; it can merely produce bureaucratic noise if there is no unified dialogue and firmness to dismantle the project’s key points. The opposition knows what it rejects but continues to struggle to craft an inspiring narrative that appeals to the middle class and workers beyond mere slogans, and this programmatic emptiness condemns it to be perpetually the «tail-end wagon» that Araya criticized.

La Moneda’s pettiness is exposed in every gesture: while Kast, Quiroz, and Alvarado insist on a plan that only deepens inequality, the opposition responds with documents that no one reads and statements that overlap without constructing a unified front.

There can be no national reconstruction based on imposition and favoritism towards the powerful, nor will there be if the democratic counterweight fragment into selfish calculations and a lack of collective leadership. The people of Chile not only demand tax justice and environmental protection; they call for an opposition that rises to the historical moment, not a chorus of discordant voices lost in their own cacophony.

The 26 key votes reflect the precariousness of the ruling party, but they also highlight the opposition’s failure to create a solid counterbalance. The government knows it can afford to lose some articles, but it is confident that the opposition’s fragmentation will allow it to maintain the essentials; and it is right, for while some senators push for action, others negotiate favors, leaving the citizen base to watch the spectacle with a mix of indignation and disappointment.

In this dynamic, the oligarchy continues its business, shielded by a government that demands nothing and an opposition that cannot agree on demanding everything.

Chile does not need more privileges for a few: it needs an opposition that moves past its childish feuds and dares to propose a concrete, financed, and ecologically brave alternative model. Kast’s neoliberal far-right plan is a symptom of a government that despises the future, but the opposition’s fragmentation is the fertile ground that allows it to survive.

While both sides get tangled in parliamentary maneuvers and tight votes, the country will literally and figuratively burn, and the urgency for profound change clashes against the mediocrity of a politics that has lost its way. Let the government celebrate its Pyrrhic victory, and let the opposition look in the mirror: history will not forgive them for playing chess while the house incubated the child.

Leopoldo Lavín Mujica

La entrada The 26 Votes of a Ruthless Right: The Cacophony of a Directionless Opposition se publicó primero en El Ciudadano.