The theoretical and limited democratic achievements of the Constitutional Convention (given the undemocratic quorum of two thirds, which threw out numerous articles approved by more than 60% of the Convention members) could be eliminated, if the Convention – through the transitional rules – reaches an announced pre-agreement that defies logic and all historical precedents regarding the approval of new constitutions. This would mean postponing for several years the most important transformation of the text: the replacement of the Senate by a Regional Chamber!

It is incredible to see how the Convention members who represent the vast majority of the Chilean people could give their approval to such an unusual measure that would allow a Senate partially elected in 2017! -before even the “social outbreak”- would continue to be decisive in the approval of laws implementing the new Constitution… They would even be declining to use a power that was clearly and explicitly given to them by the Constitutional Reform (Law 21.200) that stipulated the rules of the Convention. Indeed, Article 138 states that “the New Constitution may not bring the term of office of the authorities elected by popular vote to an early end, unless the institutions of which they are a part are abolished or substantially modified”. And what a substantial modification the Senate has undergone!.

Strictly speaking, this would not only make viable and democratic – should the text be approved in the plebiscite of 4 September – the rapid convocation of elections of the Regional Chamber, but also, of the new Chamber of Deputies, insofar as the text of the New Constitution also confers on it – by the very fact of the total transformation of the current Senate! and by other changes – numerous and significant transformations that also reveal a “substantial modification” of the current Chamber of Deputies.

Moreover, this could not only postpone by years the approval of laws implementing many of the provisions of the new Constitution (in a context of increasing poverty and social inequality which, in better conditions, has already produced a social revolt!), but worse still: it would allow the “consensual majority” of the 30 years (Right plus ex-Concertación) – with its large majority in the current Congress – to approve at will the laws that will implement the new Constitution!…

And as if the above were not enough, given that the new Constitution establishes the possibility of a two-thirds majority in Congress approving Constitutional Reforms without the need for a plebiscite or the agreement of the President of the Republic (see 448. Article 78) – and that this majority is also held in the current Congress by the consensual forces of the 30 years – it could well be expected that they would modify the new Constitution in all those things they consider relevant, starting with the maintenance of the Senate, as has been categorically expressed by Republicans and Socialists alike!…

In other words, if the aforementioned pre-agreement to postpone the Regional Chamber for years is carried out, it is most likely that it will never come into force and that, in general, -at least for many years- the new Constitution will be completely disfigured in the process of its application to the laws. In short, we will be in the presence of a destruction of the work of the Convention. Or, to put it another way, its virtual suicide.