@Columns

Yasna and the Void

What the president of the Senate is doing may not lead to her meteoric rise, but if well executed and communicated it will undoubtedly show a certain way forward at a time when the background chorus is singing of desolation and uncertainty. By Camilo Feres (*)

28 May 2021

In these times when the prevailing political trend has been toward seeding the public sphere with antagonistic and extreme discourse – further embellished by an indignant tone and the evocation of an invisibilized people – the emergence of Yasna Provoste, and her recourse to much-maligned moderate discourse and the effort to build “minimum” agreements might strike us as an anachronism doomed to failure. And yet, she’s on the move.

Almost without exception, in recent years the movement of most public figures have been towards the great attractors:  the few, but successful, political and media personalities that have achieved high levels of popularity with their indignant and antagonistic challenges. However, this herd effect has done nothing more than produce obvious outcomes: very positive results for a few and a comfortable, safe and irrelevant position of undifferentiated mimesis for the majority. We needn’t look beyond Paula Narváez’s results, which are lackluster in spite of her determination to up the ante on every fevered demand that has appeared on the horizon.

And in this frantic race to snatch some crumb of popularity by denouncing the problems, shortcomings and bad decisions of others, a vacuum has arisen on the opposite side of the mirror: the side where the shortcomings and problems so loquaciously denounced by many, need to be faced so that attempts can be made to solve or mitigate them. This is the space that Yasna Provoste has claimed.

What the president of the Senate is doing may not lead to a meteoric rise to top of mind, but if well executed and communicated, it will undoubtedly show a certain way forward at a time when the background chorus is singing of desolation and uncertainty. And given that democracy is not only about representation but also about delegation, these types of attributes could become a precious commodity in a world that for years has been bereft of compelling rather than dazzling leadership.

Some of this was likely sensed early on by Provoste’s fellow travelers – Narváez and Rincón – when they saw her outline the idea of building a governance framework-agreement. As if by reflex, they both rushed to impose conditions on the agreement, conditions that would be impossible to meet because they were so extreme. Whether by instinct or by calculation, the play these candidates are making to represent a space that Provoste seems to be occupying with a different strategy reveals just how much confusion still reigns in the rubble of the former Concertación.

Thus, while the tune seems to be played by those fighting for their share of the electorate, Yasna, carefully but purposefully, is working her way towards something new: trying to achieve minimum points of commonality to achieve a truce that is not designed for any one person’s victory in particular, and which perhaps, for that very reason, could be beneficial to everyone. And what is most novel is that she is doing it without needing to squeeze the lemon that everyone is making lemonade out of: the lonely and already defeated figure of Sebastián Piñera.

It may work, it may not, but like all innovations that break us out of the monotony and the diagnoses that seem to hang on us like a punishment, I believe that Yasna Provoste’s route is worthy of being recognized and – why not – applauded.

 

(*) Camilo Feres is a Social Communicator UARCIS and holds a Master’s Degree in Social Sciences from the University of Chile. He is also Director of Social Studies and Policies at Azerta. Column published in Ex-Ante.