MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chilean aide admits risk of loosing to conservatives

Pte. Michelle Bachelet

Chile's ruling coalition “Concertación”, but challenged by protests and a slowing economy should be prepared to lose the 2009 elections after 18 years in power, the interior minister said in an interview published in the Santiago media.

Edmundo Pérez Yoma, a top aide to President Michelle Bachelet, said the coalition's chances of holding onto power look bleak, with a leading opinion poll showing a conservative businessman favored in the 2009 presidential race. The coalition, which has ruled since the rightwing dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet ended in 1990, has faced financial scandals and repeated student protests over an education reform bill. "We have to be prepared to lose power, because that is part of the struggle for democracy," Pérez Yoma said in an interview with magazine Cosas. "The sense today is that another Concertación government is very unlikely, but I don't think not achieving it should be seen as a failure" he added. "And if it is ultimately a failure, so what?" Buoyed by windfall copper revenues, Chile has long been lauded as Latin America's most stable democracy. It has one of the region's strongest economies, and the government has had a reputation for transparency since the return to democracy. However the economy has not been steaming at its potential, unemployment remains close to two digits and inflation is threatening. Some analysts think the coalition days may be numbered and are looking to municipal elections later this year as the big test. The different groups of the coalition have had difficulties agreeing on common candidates which plays to the opposition. On top of sometimes violent protests by teachers and students, reports of rising crime, inflation and a botched revamp of the capital's bus system have also angered voters. Bachelet's approval rating hit 40% in June according to one poll, down from the 52.6% when she took power in March 2006. She cannot run again in 2009. The ruling coalition has a legislative majority but is neutralized by infighting. The junior partner of the coalition, Christian Democrats have split and some have been voting with the opposition.