SANTIAGO (Reuters) -Chile’s President Gabriel Boric, who has been struggling with low approval ratings since taking office a year ago, announced a major cabinet reshuffle on Friday, including the foreign minister.
Alberto van Klaveren, who was Chile’s ambassador to the European Union from 2001 to 2006 and served as undersecretary of foreign affairs from 2006 to 2009 under former President Michelle Bachelet, will replace Antonia Urrejola as minister of foreign affairs.
Boric also named new ministers for public works, culture, sports and science ministries and changed undersecretaries for several ministries including for finance, transportation and agriculture.
“We’re entering our second year of government and after a conscious evaluation, I’ve decided to make changes to my cabinet,” Boric said at a press conference from La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago on the eve of his first anniversary in power.
“What motivates me to make these changes aren’t political pressures or minor wins, the goal of these changes is to improve our capacity to respond and improve to the challenges facing our country.”
Boric’s low approval ratings hit just 25% in late January before bouncing back to 35% in early March.
A tax reform package, important to Boric’s ambitious agenda of expanding social rights, was shelved by Congress on Wednesday.
This is Boric’s second major cabinet reshuffle. The first was after a proposed progressive new constitution was widely rejected by voters last September.
Boric made headlines when he initially announced his young, female-led cabinet last March, but a number of controversies and missteps have led the president to name more experienced and centrist politicians to his cabinet.
Kenneth Bunker, a political analyst with Politico Tech Global, said that while Friday’s cabinet reshuffle highlights Boric’s gradual shift to the center since taking office, it could be insufficient to deal with the government’s underlying problems.
“I think this government’s main problem has been political and strategic, not sector-based, and these cabinet changes are sector-based,” Bunker said.
“So the problems the government has with sloppiness, timing, when to address topics or not, like (Wednesday’s) tax reform, aren’t going to be solved with this cabinet change.”
(Reporting by Natalia Ramos and Alexander Villegas; Editing by Diane Craft and Grant McCool)
