Recoleta mayor Daniel Jadue, who will be the Communist Party’s presidential candidate, presented his plans on June 16. Jadue, who is leading most of the polls, is aiming at tax and social reforms. Some of the projects proposed are large scale copies of projects successfully conducted in Recoleta.
“We commit ourselves to not leave anyone behind … we must look at the bottom of the pyramid and assure that everyone in Chile lives a dignified life. No more governing with averages, but [instead] making sure that no one in Chile … is left behind,” said Daniel Jadue during the presentation of his political program on Wednesday, June 16. The Communist candidate, frontrunner in the presidential polls, laid out a program full of reforms and social improvements.
Fundamentally, he aims to reform the Chilean tax system, by taxing the “super rich” (those worth over US$5 million) and increasing the royalty foreign mining companies must pay to mine in Chile. Jadue also proposed ending the controversial AFP pension system in Chile. He proposed that the privately administered pension system, which uses pension savings to invest in stock, must be replaced by a state-driven pension system that guarantees pensioners some 75 percent of their former salary.
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With labor rights always a key topic of the Communist Party, Jadue also proposed to increase the minimum wage in Chile from US$440 to US$771 per month within four years, while reducing the workweek from 45 to 40 hours, and later to a possible 36.
Some other plans from Jadue included revamping sex-ed in Chile, allowing legal abortion up to 14 weeks, a harder stance on violence against women, and legalizing marijuana. He also proposed to reform the national police force, which, in the wake of the social protests, was accused of numerous human rights violations. In police academies, the focus must be on respecting human rights, Jadue said.
Although many basic services (such as water and electricity) are privatized in Chile and many natural resources (such as lithium and partly copper) are extracted by foreign companies, the Jadue campaign emphasized that it is not planning to nationalize or expropriate any of these services or resources.
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Editor-In-Chief Boris van der Spek is the founder of Chile Today.