President Piñera of Chile at 27% approval

Today we have the new Adimark GfK poll on the approval ratings for President Sebastian Piñera, his government and all other things Chile. Here's the headline chart from the Adimark PDF (i haz teh copy):

Question: Independent to your political position, do you approve or disapprove of the form in which Sebastian Piñera is running his government?

Oh dear. That 27% approval rating is another all-time record for a Chilean Prez racked up by Seb. Mind you, he actually beats out the approval for his government, at 25%. News report on this trainwreck approval result here.

Chile: President Piñera's approval ratings drop to all-time low

The 30% approval (62% disapproval) scored by Seb Piñera in the Adimark GfK poll released today isn't just the worst approval rating he's had; it's the worst approval rating ever scored by any Chilean president.

So IKN goes for the succinct analysis commentary: It sucks. Casillero del Diablo served, the end.

Chop Chop

 Does my chopper look fat in this?

 

The story: President Sebastian Piñera was flying his helicopter down to a property he owns for a few hours of R&R this weekend just gone when he noticed that he was short of fuel. So he lands the copter on the road below, says hi to the locals, phones the police to get them to bring some juice, they turn up, refuel and off he flies. Of course this brought out all the handwringers in Chile, saying that a President shouldn't be into such high-risk activities and suchlike (apparently he likes scuba diving too). Buncha dumbasses, frankly. After all, I'd prefer a Prez that has a bit of gumption about them than the usual bunch of career politico fools that usually get the job.

Anyway, here's a video from Chile news TV last night that has it all up close and personal. In Spanish of course, but the pictures are more than enough if you suffer a lack of Spanisheration in yer brain.

The thing I like most about Sebastián Piñera.....

...definitely isn't his political philosophy, it isn't all that saving 33 miners thing and it isn't his business acumen or large net wealth. Nah to all that, cos the thing I most like about President Sebastián Piñera of Chile is that he's a total freakin' dumbass when it comes to diplomacy. From DPA newswire today (translated):

The President of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, put his foot in it on the last day of his European tour by writing an incorrect comment in the visitor's book of Germany's Presidential Palace while meeting on Saturday with the German Head of State, Christian Wulff.


Piñera wrote "Deutschland über alles" on finishing his meeting in the Bellvue Palace in Berlin, the phrase that began the old German National Anthem, closely related with Nazism and carrying the meaning that the German race is superior to all others.


The current National Anthem does not have this line and what's more, Germany today  penalizes any sort of apology for Nazism. CONTINUES HERE

Approval ratings of four local Presidents (for the attention of Foreign Perfidy)

This chart as a complement to Greg Weeks' post this morning, as he decided to debunk some of the guff and nonsense written by Foreign Policy on Ecuador.

Piñera does the right thing

goodbye crusty white person with far right views

As reported by Maladjusted this morning, there's been a big hoo-hah down this way thanks to an interview given by Chile's ambassador to Argentina in which he said that the Pinochet years weren't that big a deal. Here's the exact quote as IKN shamelessly lifts SM's good translation:

"The majority of Chile didn't feel the impact of the dictatorship. On the contrary, they were relieved. Because before you couldn't buy anything imported, you had to pay for what was produced in Chile--expensive and bad. Over night, you started to find out what was missing. The people won. Then the streets were cleaned and people started to have jobs."

For details of how dumbass this crusty was when opening his mouth, check out the Maladjusted post.

So the news out of Chile a few minutes ago is that ambassador Otero (for it is he above) has "had his resignation accepted" (i.e. Seb Piñera has booted his ass outta town) even after he gave it the full apology. This is good. I'm actually beginning to like this Piñera dude, much to my own surprise.

Piñera talks the talk

wristwatch is not gold

We'll find out later if he walks the walk.

There's a good interview with new Chilean Prez Piñera in Argentina's Clarín today, recorded while he was in Argentina this week on a state "hello I'm new round here nice to meet you" goodwill visit to Klishtinalandia. Those versed in the tongue of Cervantes would do well to click through and read the whole thing, but in this post I'd like to emphasize just one Q&A from the article. Here it is translated:

How will you lead your government in relationships with the rest of the region?

"We have to learn to have good relationships, including with countries whose government have different philosophies. Relationships should be of the State and the people, not based in political or ideological agreements or divergences. In Latin America one sees different economic development models and democratic models, for example countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua follow one model. Another model is followed by Mexico, Colombia, Brazil or Chile. Each country is free to choose its path. For this the French are very wise when they say, "Vive la difference. Chile believes in democracy, the alternance of power, strong political parties, freedom of expression, separation of powers, a social market economy and integration in the world economy. My country believes in a society with greater equality of opportunities and social justice. My government will continue to strengthen these values."

Now yeah for sure there's a decent dose of politik-speak in there, but overall it's a good answer. Ostensibly at least, the dude is out to be part of Latin America and not part of imposing the arrogant North's idea of freedom on Chile's brother countries. Everybody knows that a billionaire rightwinger such as Piñera isn't cut from the same cloth as a lefty such as Chávez, but he's making the right noises so far. Piñera gets a pass mark from IKN this week, let's hope it continues.

New Prez in Chile

Amidst scenes of local Presidents and assorted bigwigs kakkin themselves due to a 6.9mag aftershock (nice timing, earthgods).......

(five photos in this gallery, my fave is Uribe & Klishtina)

..... Chile saw the handing over of the Presidency from 'Chelle to newboy Sebastian Piñera today. Here's the dude front'n'centre with his new cabinet ministers.

(the banner translates as "rise up Chile" or "stand up Chile", referring to the

aftermath of the quake, not the 'Chelle years)

We wish him luck. He's going to need it

Chile and Bolivia: This one will really confuse you guys up there

Hey, remember all the celebrations about the right wing victory over the Axis of Evo that happened in Chile? How the new hope of the rabid right was about to kick ass and take names amongst those pinko commie types that eat babies and stuff? Check out this video:

Chile's Pres Elect Piñera played a friendly game of footy with next door neighbour Evo Morales today. Sebastian said that "This football match has a lot of symbolism" and went on to say:

"Our shirt has the flags of both Chile and Bolivia, with a symbol of unity and a handshake, and this is what we want to do with Bolivia, with Argentina, with Peru; be brother countries that solve our differences with dialogue, not with insults and much less by violence."

Meanwhile, here's Evo's take on the gig:

"Via sport we want to built a good friendship, president, with trust from president to president, trust from government to government, the trust of our peoples, brothers and neighbours"

Do not expect this one to make it to BatshitCrazy O'Grady's WSJ column next week, cos if it doesn't fit the prejudice, you just gotta ignore it. It's how the west was won, son.

Charts of the day are....

...how opinion polls are looking for Chile's presidential election, scheduled for December 11th. Here's the main poll:

At the moment rightie Piñera is leading the polls, with leftie Frei (ex prez and from Bachelet's mob) 2nd in the polls. But the interesting mix means that no candidate is likely to make it past the post in round one and a 2nd round run-off is likely. So here's how that is shaping...

.....and that, ladies and gentlmen, is what's known as "too close to call". Frei has made up ground in the last four or five months and we can now expect a very tight race for the top job this year.