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Left-wing candidate Gabriel Boric elected to lead Universidad de Chile student federation.
Camila Vallejo, the highest profile student leader in Chile and the international face of the country’s student movement of 2011, was unsuccessful in her re-election campaign for president of the Universidad de Chile student federation (Fech).
Gabriel Boric is now president-elect of the Universidad de Chile Student Federation. Photo courtesy of Creando Izquierda.
The election results were announced in the early hours of Wednesday morning, following two days of voting that saw a record turnout at Chile’s most prestigious public university, which has become a focal point of the seven-month-long movement for education reform.
Gabriel Boric now becomes Fech president-elect and will assume the top job in 2012 after his party, “Creating Left,” obtained 4,053 of the 13,280 valid votes.
Vallejo will remain in a position of leadership as vice president of the Fech, since her party, the Communist Youth, came in at second place with 3,864 votes.
On the morning of his victory Boric paid tribute to the students that he will replace for their work in initiating the student movement, but signaled that his party would be more ambitious in its policy direction.
“We want to acknowledge the outgoing administration,” Boric told Radio Cooperativa, “they made a great effort to reposition the Fech [in the process of Chilean politics] and initiate the student movement. We are aware of the historic responsibility that we hold to be part of a movement that not only aims to change the education system, but also to change Chile.”
Vallejo was philosophical following the election results, saying that the university’s 2012 leadership would be made up entirely of “representatives of the left.”
Vallejo said that the election result demonstrated “that a left-wing majority expressed itself in this vote and obviously represents what has been a great majority in this movement, both within the university and externally.”
“This is all pretty positive for us,” said Vallejo. “We are very content and very optimistic. But this is a task that calls on all of us to continue working.”
Both leading parties obtained more than twice as many votes as the third place party, “Fighting to create a university for the people,” which received 1,816 votes, meaning the two leading parties will also have a place in the Fech committee of directors.
Creating Left’s Andrés Fielbaum will assume the role of communications secretary, while Julio Maturana of the Communist Youth will take up the office of executive secretary.
Chile’s government was quick to comment on the Fech elections, with spokesperson Andrés Chadwick declaring that the government “respected the democratic decision of the students of the Universidad de Chile,” and hoped to the work together with the new president.
“The government doesn’t prefer one candidate over another,” Chadwick told Radio Cooperitiva, “the government looks to have the best possible relationship with all of the student leaders, whatever their policies or political stripes.”
Still, Boric rejected the minister’s comments by declaring that the students’ “adversaries” were not “within the university” but “in Congress and in the government.”
In an interview with Radio Coopertiva Boric signaled his intention to disengage the student movement from Chile’s political institutions and instead seek to change the institutions themselves.
The new leader’s position puts him at odds with the strategy employed over the last few months, of which Vallejo was a central figure, to work with the opposition Concertación alliance to exert pressure on the government.
“We don’t want to answer to the traditional political parties, but rather to create new sectors that represent the discontent of the people who no longer feel represented by the right or by the (center-left) Concertación,” said Boric.
Boric said his party iis committed to work with other “social actors” to create “new political sectors. . . because the current institutional framework in Chile doesn’t have the ability to deliver on the demands of the student movement.”
“We are no longer willing to continue delegating this new call for transformation to the politicians of yesterday,” he said.
By Joe Hinchliffe (editor@santiagotimes.cl)
Copyright 2011 – The Santiago Times
Camila Vallejo, the highest profile student leader in Chile and the international face of the country’s student movement of 2011, was unsuccessful in her re-election campaign for president of the Universidad de Chile student federation (Fech).
Gabriel Boric is now president-elect of the Universidad de Chile Student Federation. Photo courtesy of Creando Izquierda.
The election results were announced in the early hours of Wednesday morning, following two days of voting that saw a record turnout at Chile’s most prestigious public university, which has become a focal point of the seven-month-long movement for education reform.
Gabriel Boric now becomes Fech president-elect and will assume the top job in 2012 after his party, “Creating Left,” obtained 4,053 of the 13,280 valid votes.
Vallejo will remain in a position of leadership as vice president of the Fech, since her party, the Communist Youth, came in at second place with 3,864 votes.
On the morning of his victory Boric paid tribute to the students that he will replace for their work in initiating the student movement, but signaled that his party would be more ambitious in its policy direction.
“We want to acknowledge the outgoing administration,” Boric told Radio Cooperativa, “they made a great effort to reposition the Fech [in the process of Chilean politics] and initiate the student movement. We are aware of the historic responsibility that we hold to be part of a movement that not only aims to change the education system, but also to change Chile.”
Vallejo was philosophical following the election results, saying that the university’s 2012 leadership would be made up entirely of “representatives of the left.”
Vallejo said that the election result demonstrated “that a left-wing majority expressed itself in this vote and obviously represents what has been a great majority in this movement, both within the university and externally.”
“This is all pretty positive for us,” said Vallejo. “We are very content and very optimistic. But this is a task that calls on all of us to continue working.”
Both leading parties obtained more than twice as many votes as the third place party, “Fighting to create a university for the people,” which received 1,816 votes, meaning the two leading parties will also have a place in the Fech committee of directors.
Creating Left’s Andrés Fielbaum will assume the role of communications secretary, while Julio Maturana of the Communist Youth will take up the office of executive secretary.
Chile’s government was quick to comment on the Fech elections, with spokesperson Andrés Chadwick declaring that the government “respected the democratic decision of the students of the Universidad de Chile,” and hoped to the work together with the new president.
“The government doesn’t prefer one candidate over another,” Chadwick told Radio Cooperitiva, “the government looks to have the best possible relationship with all of the student leaders, whatever their policies or political stripes.”
Still, Boric rejected the minister’s comments by declaring that the students’ “adversaries” were not “within the university” but “in Congress and in the government.”
In an interview with Radio Coopertiva Boric signaled his intention to disengage the student movement from Chile’s political institutions and instead seek to change the institutions themselves.
The new leader’s position puts him at odds with the strategy employed over the last few months, of which Vallejo was a central figure, to work with the opposition Concertación alliance to exert pressure on the government.
“We don’t want to answer to the traditional political parties, but rather to create new sectors that represent the discontent of the people who no longer feel represented by the right or by the (center-left) Concertación,” said Boric.
Boric said his party iis committed to work with other “social actors” to create “new political sectors. . . because the current institutional framework in Chile doesn’t have the ability to deliver on the demands of the student movement.”
“We are no longer willing to continue delegating this new call for transformation to the politicians of yesterday,” he said.
By Joe Hinchliffe (editor@santiagotimes.cl)
Copyright 2011 – The Santiago Times
About the writer
Joe Hinchliffe
Joe is from Brisbane, arguably the greatest city in Australia outside of Melbourne and Sydney and not including the capital, which no one outside the country has heard of anyway. He studied journalism and geography at the University of Queensland. In 2009 he left to do his last year of study on exchange at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He has lived in Santiago since mid 2010.
Comments
-2
#1
2011-12-08 19:55
i think that those revolutionary students are not correct,because the actually system of private university(that really are, not the stately) are not interferied with the stately universities. I think that these have to be totaly gratuitous to the people, but privates institutions have to be on working because there are people that could pay for its education. Like finally point both diferent instititions have to be exists.
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