The parties of the oficialismo (the governing coalition) came out in defense of Finance Minister Jorge Quiroz after the mayor of Ñuñoa, a Santiago comuna (municipality), Sebastián Sichel, sharply criticized him on Sunday, according to La Tercera. The support comes just as discussion of the 2027 Budget resumes this week in the Congreso (Chile's National Congress).
According to that outlet, the issue will likely come up at the cabinet council that will review the national budget this Monday.
Sichel, an independent, issued an ultimatum in an interview with La Tercera. "Either Quiroz changes and understands politics, or a political minister has to be found to act as a counterweight to him", he said. The mayor argued that the head of Teatinos 120, the seat of the Ministerio de Hacienda (Finance Ministry), has taken on an unusually prominent role and acts like an "all-powerful" minister, with no political judgment behind him.
The former Chile Vamos presidential candidate compared him to a class treasurer. He acknowledged that Quiroz is tightening the fiscal purse because he inherited a deficit that, in his view, the previous government mismanaged. However, he called for more empathy toward the difficult economic situation Chileans are facing.
The criticism also extended to Claudio Alvarado, who serves as both Interior Minister and head of the Secretaría General de Gobierno (Segegob, the government's spokesperson ministry). According to Sichel, Alvarado still acts like a legislator and does not engage in the public policy debate within the government. He added that only sectoral ministers, such as Iván Poduje (Housing) and Martín Arrau (Security), act as a counterweight to Quiroz.
Within the governing coalition, people acknowledge that Sichel's objections are not isolated on the right. Even so, Republicanos and Chile Vamos closed ranks around the minister.
The president of Evópoli, Senator Luciano Cruz-Coke, recalled that Quiroz comes off a political victory, the mega-reform, in which he showed "more political flexibility than many believed". According to Cruz-Coke, his first mandate is to get the serious inherited fiscal problem back on track.
The president of the UDI, Deputy Guillermo Ramírez, was confident. "I am sure that on November 30 the government will be celebrating a new success with the overwhelming approval of the Ley de Presupuestos" (the annual Budget Law), he said.
From Renovación Nacional (RN), its president, Senator Andrea Balladares, acknowledged a social urgency regarding employment and the cost of living. However, she rejected putting the focus on Quiroz. She argued that decisions are made as a team, are led by the President and must be supported by a political committee.
Deputy Diego Schalper (RN) defended the Ley de Reconstrucción (Reconstruction Law), which he described as the most significant tax reform since Alberto Arenas's under Michelle Bachelet's government. "A class treasurer doesn't do that", he said. In his view, the underlying problem is the political design, and serving as spokesperson is not the Finance Minister's job.
Schalper called for evaluations to be postponed. The Budget must be passed first, he said, and the time to consider changes will come at the end of the year. Pressing the criticism now, he warned, hurts the government.
Senator Rodolfo Carter, a Republican-aligned independent and member of the Senate Finance Committee, welcomed internal criticism but warned that the manner matters. He recalled that Sichel lost the election when he was Chile Vamos's candidate and said that "playing as a team is fundamental".
The immediate test for Quiroz is the legal deadline: Congress must pass the 2027 Ley de Presupuestos before November 30, the date the governing coalition itself set as its target for celebration.
