Pinera Wins In Chile

Piñera wins presidency as Chile returns to the right

By Jude Webber in Santiago

Published: January 17 2010 14:54 | Last updated: January 17 2010 23:26

Sebastian Pinera (centre) and his wife Cecilia Morel (right) celebrate the results of the presidential elections

EDITOR’S CHOICE

Chile’s right eyes return to power - Jan-14

Editorial: Chile’s close contest- Jan-14

Lex: Chile in OECD - Jan-11

Rightwing candidate leads Chile presidency race - Dec-14

Chile’s Piñera one step closer to presidency - Dec-14

Voters take to presidential polls in Chile - Dec-11

Sebastián Piñera, a billionaire businessman, has defeated Chile’s ruling leftist coalition to return the right to power for the first time since the return of democracy after General Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship in 1990.

The silver-haired airline magnate, who has pledged to implement a change of style but is not expected to make big policy shifts, scored a clear victory over Eduardo Frei, a former president who had been seeking a fifth consecutive term for the ruling Concertación coalition but failed to overcome the left’s image as stagnant and riven by infighting.

With 99.2 per cent of the vote counted, giving Mr Piñera a lead of 51.61 per cent to Mr Frei’s 48.38 per cent, the former president conceded defeat. It was the right’s first victory at the ballot box in Chile since 1958 and bucks a South American trend with the left in power in many countries from Venezuela to Brazil to Argentina.

“I want to congratulate Sebastián Piñera … I wish him success,” said a grim-faced Mr Frei, flanked by two other former Concertación presidents, Patricio Aylwin and Ricardo Lagos. President Michelle Bachelet also telephoned him with congratulations, urging him to continue on the path of social justice plotted by the left in the past two decades.

Political analysts said Mr Piñera owed his victory more to voter dissatisfaction with the left than an embrace of the right in a country where memories of the Pinochet years are still raw. But delighted followers drove through the streets of Santiago honking horns and flag-waving supporters thronged the hotel where Mr Piñera was expected to make a victory speech later.

“This was a vote much more for a change of pilot than for a change of course,” said Patricio Navia, a political analyst. “Chileans want to see new faces.”

Mr Piñera, 60, who holds a doctorate in economics from Harvard, sought during the campaign to allay fears that a return of the right would revive ghosts of the Pinochet dictatorship. He has made ambitious pledges for his four-year term which begins in March, including the creation of 1m new jobs and 6 per cent a year economic growth in the world’s top copper producing nation which joined the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development this month.

“This is perfectly feasible,” said Felipe Larraín, who is tipped by some analysts to be Mr Piñera’s finance minister.

Mr Piñera, described by colleagues as a pragmatic, tireless man motivated by winning, will have to work with a divided Congress on his policy plans, which include improving the education system and potentially opening up state-owned copper giant Codelco to private investment. After the government of President Michelle Bachelet used windfall profits from Codelco to cushion the impact of the recession in Chile, Mr Piñera could use more of the cash to fund spending programmes, analysts say.

Mr Piñera, who built a business empire spanning an airline, television station and Chile’s top soccer team, is worth a reputed $1.2bn but cultivates a down-to-earth image complete with brightly coloured plastic watch.

Chile's Next President Will Emphasize Efficienct

Chile's 'Berlusconi' puts efficiency top of election agenda
By Oliver Balch in Buenos Aires
Published: October 27 2009 02:00 Last updated: October 27 2009 02:00
Buenos Aires rush hour traffic lets up for no man, not even billionaire Chileans with a date to see the Argentine president.
Sebastián Piñera covers his growing agitation at the stop-start traffic with practised calm. He is a man in a hurry. Not only is Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Argentina's premier, waiting for him. So, too, is the presidential seat back home.
As head of Chile's right-wing coalition, Mr Piñera is enjoying a comfortable lead in the run-up to national elections in December. After 19 years of the left-wing Concertación alliance, Chileans are showing an appetite for change. But not too much, which is just what Mr Piñera is offering.
"Our objective is to maintain the network of social protection that has been constructed by the last governments . . . but to make it more efficient," he tells the Financial Times in the back of his official car.
"Efficiency" is the watchword for this entrepreneur turned politician. There will be no messing with the policies that investors have come to love about Chile: balanced budgets, open markets, stable institutions and respect for the rule of law.
One of the country's richest men - known to his critics as "Chile's Silvio Berlusconi"- Mr Piñera's pitch rests on bringing business-like proficiency to that package. "Efficiency isn't a word that only interests the world of private companies. Efficiency is a word that does - or ought to - interest the world of politics," he argues.
His message is "better, quicker" delivery across the public sector. He pledges to root out inefficiencies and slash bureaucracy in healthcare, public education and crime prevention. So far, so standard.
As for the role of the state in general, he concedes a place for government in bringing about "profound modernisations", but decries any excessive dallying in the private sector.
"We want a state that strengthens its muscles but doesn't accumulate fat," he says, giving a nod to those on both the left and right of Chile's political spectrum.
Yet Mr Piñera's effort to present himself as a moderate voice and transitional president has still to convince some voters.
For starters, questions have been raised about his business activities. His personal fortune derives from introducing credit cards into Chile in the late 1970s. Since then, his portfolio of assets has expanded to include the terrestrial television channel Chilevisión and a stake of about 27 per cent in former state airline LAN. "He's never really separated his politician side from his business side," says Patricio Navia, a Latin American specialist at New York University.
Although Mr Piñera recently placed his investments under the control of a blind trust, he continues to run his political campaign from the headquarters of his business operations. That makes people wary, says Mr Navia.
The nickname of "Chile's Berlusconi" drew strength when it emerged that Mr Piñera had undergone plastic surgery on his eyelids. He rejects the comparison with Italy's prime minister as neither "just nor adequate". As for the surgery, that was to help correct his peripheral vision, he said.
"Berlusconi is not a saint of my devotion. I have profound differences from him," he says.
Questions also surround Mr Piñera's views on the Pinochet dictatorship, in which his brother was a cabinet minister.
A former senator and self-proclaimed Christian Humanist, Mr Piñera insists he voted against the continuation of the Pinochet regime in a 1988 referendum. Yet a year later he backed the presidential campaign of Mr Pinochet's finance minister. "With Piñera comes a more modernised, more democratic right . . . but also part of the political right that is linked to the dictatorship," argues José Jara, director of the political research centre Flacso Chile.
Fortunately for Mr Piñera, the ruling Concertación alliance is in disarray. Despite record personal approval ratings of more 70 per cent for President Michele Bachelet, Chile's ruling coalition has lost steam after almost two decades in power.
Concertación's candidate, Eduardo Frei, holds second place in the opinion polls. Yet most surveys put him 10 per cent or more behind Mr Piñera, who enjoys ratings of about 37 per cent.
This is Mr Piñera's second attempt at the presidency. In 2005, he lost to Ms Bachelet in a run-off. Despite the ruling party's problems, Chile's presidential hopeful has so far held off from negative campaigning. "The government has good intentions, but it hasn't been successful in achieving these," he says.