Jaime Bassa, a deputy from the Broad Front (FA), said on Wednesday that the demands that sparked the social uprising of October 2019 remain relevant. He made the remarks in an interview with EmolTV, according to Emol.
"The population's material living conditions remain basically the same or worse," the lawmaker said. In his view, the protests left the streets, but the discontent remained in people's homes.
"The uprising, of course, is probably no longer in the streets, but it is still alive in every household," Bassa said. As examples, he cited family debt, pensions insufficient to live on and households forced to choose between paying bills and covering basic needs.
The most sensitive issue was violence. Bassa criticized public debate for focusing solely on condemning violent acts without examining the social conditions that, he said, help explain them. "I am not a priest to go around handing out either condemnations or indulgences," he said. He added that his job is to represent people.
The deputy said he understood the anger accumulated over the years. "Until we understand where the physical violence that bothers some intellectuals so much when they see it in the streets comes from, we will never end structural violence," he argued.
He also took aim at Jaime Bellolio, mayor of Providencia, criticizing him for remaining focused on what happened in 2019. Bassa described him as part of an affluent political class educated at schools in Barrio Alto and unfamiliar with the difficulty of making ends meet. The source does not include a response from Bellolio.
The remarks come amid an ongoing debate over the legacy of 2019. In recent days, Republican Party President Arturo Squella asked President José Antonio Kast to pardon police officers convicted over acts committed during the uprising, while RN and Evópoli prefer to consider sentence commutations.
Bassa denied that his position reflected nostalgia or a refusal to acknowledge a political defeat. "This is the present. People are struggling today," he said. He also asked why the political class was looking at what happened seven years ago instead of current problems.
To close, the deputy called on people to organize and create spaces for discussion. He said that building social power is key to resisting a government that, in his opinion, is doing a very poor job.
