Upset for Pinera as Chilean Lower House approves withdrawal from pensions
Chilean lawmakers in the country's lower house on Wednesday approved a bill to allow citizens to withdraw up to 10% from private pension funds, in a significant blow to the government of center-right President Sebastián Piñera.
Deputies gathered in the Chilean Congress in the coastal city of Valparaiso cheered and sang the national anthem after the result was announced. The vote was 95-36, with 22 abstentions. The bill was backed by 13 members of Pinera's ruling coalition.
Pinera on Tuesday announced cash payments to middle-class citizens hard-hit by the coronavirus outbreak to try to kneecap support for the bill, which economists have warned could cause a short, sharp shock to the country's bourse and diminish future pension payouts, already widely accepted to be too low to live on.
Chilean senators will vote on the bill in the coming weeks.
At: https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2020-07-15/protests-erupt-in-chile-on-eve-of-lawmaker-vote-to-allow-pension-withdrawal
Scenes last night's protests in Santiago, Chile, in favor of a bill allowing a 10% withdrawal from pension funds - and against the center-right Piñera administration.
While Chile's private pension system has received plaudits in much of the western media, 30% commissions leave 80% of Chilean retirees with depleted pension accounts - thus leaving them dependent on state subsidies to cover the minimum $200 pension Chilean law guarantees.
The pension system was implemented in 1981 by dictator Augusto Pinochet's Labor Minister José Piñera - the current president's brother.