POLITICS-CHILE: Diversity and Balance in Bachelet’s Team

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo González

SANTIAGO, Jan 31 2006 (IPS) - Chilean President-elect Michelle Bachelet signalled the importance her government will give to social areas when she formally presented her ministerial team, which reflects parity between women and men, a spectrum of ages and a complex political balance.

The socialist paediatrician, 54, who will take office on Mar. 11 as Chile’s first woman president, named her cabinet on Monday night. Seventeen of the 20 ministerial posts will be filled by members of the parties that make up the centre-left governing coalition, and three by independents.

The cabinet, which combines youth and experience, will consist of seven members of the Christian Democratic Party (PDC), five members of the Party for Democracy (PPD), four from Bachelet’s Socialist Party (PS) and one from the Radical Social Democratic Party (PRSD).

For the first time in Chilean history, there will be equal numbers of men and women in the cabinet, with women in key posts such as the General Secretariat of the Presidency, in charge of relations with Congress, to be headed by socialist lawyer Paulina Veloso, and the head of the Defence Ministry, entrusted to economist Vivianne Blanlot of the PPD.

The selection of independent actress Paulina Urrutia as minister of Culture was one of the surprise announcements. Bachelet also designated Ingrid Antonijevic of the PPD for Economy, Clarisa Hardy of the PS for Planning, and physician María Soledad Barría, also a socialist, for Health.

The other women in the future cabinet are Patricia Poblete and Laura Albornoz, both of the PDC, in Housing and Urban Planning and the National Service for Women, respectively; independent Karen Poniachik in Mining; and Romy Schmidt, of the PPD, as minister of National Assets.

The two top posts went to former senators of the PDC: the Interior Ministry to Andrés Zaldívar, and the Ministry of Foreign Relations to Alejandro Foxley. Independent economist Andrés Velasco will be minister of Finance, the third most important position.

Ricardo Lagos Weber of the PPD, son of outgoing socialist president Ricardo Lagos, will be minister Secretary General of Government, the president’s spokesman.

Other members of the PDC will be the ministers of Education, Martín Zilic, Transport and Telecommunications, Sergio Espejo, and Agriculture, Alvaro Rojas. The PPD will be further represented by Eduardo Bitrán in Public Works, and the PS by Osvaldo Andrade in Labour and Social Security.

The future Justice minister, lawyer Isidro Solís, is the sole representative of the PRSD, although Velasco in Finance is considered to be close to that party.

There will be 22 ministries in all, as Bachelet reaffirmed her campaign promise to create portfolios for the Environment and for Public Safety, although she has not yet announced who will head them.

This Tuesday the president-elect introduced ministers Barría, Hardy, Albornoz, Zilic and Andrade as members of the area of social protection, and she presented them with folders containing their main tasks, emphasising measures to be taken in the first 100 days of the new government.

Later, in separate ceremonies, the future president presented ministers who will work in the other areas: economy, infrastructure, cities and lands, and politics.

The designations provoked surprise and irritation in some quarters, for although Bachelet had received proposals from the parties, she took the final decision on her own. She disregarded several experienced politicians who were considered to be sure candidates, and firmly resisted pressure from the PDC leadership.

Andrés Zaldívar, who lost his Senate seat in the legislative elections on Dec. 11, was named Interior minister even though his brother Adolfo, senator and president of the PDC, wanted the post for the candidate he favoured, another former senator, Rafael Moreno.

Andrés Zaldívar was president of the political committee in Bachelet’s second-round campaign, and he is credited with stemming the tide of PDC voters from turning towards Sebastián Piñera, the rightwing multimillionaire who was Bachelet’s rival in the run-off election on Jan. 15, when he won 47 percent of the vote against her 53 percent.

“Michelle Bachelet has acted forcefully (in designating her cabinet), whatever each party may say about whether they are satisfied with their representation,” said Víctor Barrueto, the president of the PPD, who was bruited as a candidate for a ministry.

Predictions that former ministers Sergio Bitar (PPD) and Ricardo Solari (PS) would get cabinet seats were not fulfilled, although they were active leaders in Bachelet’s camp. The aspirations of Luis Maira – current ambassador to Argentina and former senator and government minister – to the Foreign Ministry were also disappointed.

Osvaldo Puccio, the present presidential spokesman, emphasised the “excellence” of the future cabinet, and the participation accorded to women. He said they were “good people, intelligent, with a coalition spirit,” referring to the Coalition of Parties for Democracy which has governed the country since March 1990.

As head of the centre-left coalition’s fourth consecutive government, Bachelet has promised that her administration will emphasise social development to combat unequal distribution of wealth in this country of nearly 16 million, and encourage a leadership role for non-governmental organisations and civil society.

“The cabinet appointments show a certain independence in relation to political parties, but the independent ministers don’t necessarily reflect civil society positions,” Jorge Larenas, executive secretary of the Chilean Association of Non-Governmental Organisations, told IPS.

“Although some of the independent ministers are not in the party system, they are a part of the world of traditional politics, except future Culture minister Paulina Urrutia, who is clearly from the world of citizen organisations,” he added.

Urrutia, 37, is a well-known theatre, film and television actress. As a former president of the Actors’ Union, she was active in the social and cultural movements that led to ending censorship of works of art, and other repressive laws inherited from the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).

Velasco, the Finance minister-designate, comes from academic and economic currents identified with free-market philosophies, and Antonijevic, who will be minister of Economy, is also linked to the private sector, Larenas pointed out about the other independents.

According to Larenas, the designation of Vivianne Blanlot as minister of Defence “is a symbolic signal that when Lagos named Bachelet to that post (from January 2002 to October 2004) it was no accident, and could indicate a deeper trend.”

“No portfolio needs to be intrinsically masculine, they all need to be open to either sex. Appointing Blanlot is also a signal to the armed forces that key aspects (of Bachelet’s management of the ministry) will be continued, such as modernisation, working closely with the civilian world, and transparency,” he noted.

Larenas also said that “balance (between men and women) in the cabinet is a good thing, but it doesn’t necessarily imply a committed understanding of gender and diversity.” He added that “it will be necessary to wait a while before passing judgement.”

Rosa Ferrada, the co-director of the leftwing Movement for the Emancipation of Women, told IPS “on a personal level” that the balance between women and men in the new cabinet had left her with a “sweet and sour” taste.

Ferrada believes that the appointment of Christian Democrat militants to the ministries of Education and of National Service for Women could mean the continuing influence of “fundamentalist (Roman Catholic) Church attitudes” that would prevent progress on sex education in schools, and on sexual and reproductive rights for women.

“In spite of this parity in the cabinet, in my opinion we women are still being excluded,” Ferrada remarked. However, she applauded the appointment of Urrutia to the Culture ministry as a recognition of her work, and of younger people.