Arturo Alessandri

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Arturo Alessandri Palma

Arturo Alessandri Palma (born December 20, 1868 on the Longaví estate in the Linares province, † August 24, 1950 in Santiago de Chile ) was a Chilean politician . From 1920 to 1925, 1925 and 1932 to 1938 he was President of his country (see: History of Chile ).

Family and education

Alessandri was born the third of six children into a wealthy landowning family and attended the Franciscan school in his home country . He then studied law at the Universidad de Chile until he graduated in 1883. In July 1894 he married Rosa Esther Rodríguez, with whom he had nine children; including Jorge Alessandri Rodríguez, who should also make it to the Chilean President.

Professional and political career

In 1890 he became section head in the National Library of Chile. From 1891 he also wrote for the opposition newspaper La Justicia. From 1983 he worked as a librarian in the National Library of Chile. In 1893 he also joined the Liberal Party and was elected to the House of Representatives for the first time in 1897 for his home constituency Curicó and Vichuquén - in the heart of the Chilean wine-growing region. From 1898-1899 he was Minister of Labor twice for a short time during the presidency of Echaurren . Alessandri was elected Senator for the Región de Tarapacá in 1915.

Presidency 1920-1925

In 1920 he won the presidential election for the Liberals. His electoral program saw the separation of church and state and the introduction of social legislation, which brought him into sharp contrast to the conservatives in church and army .

Alessandri quickly found himself caught between all chairs, because those on the left soon hated him too. At the beginning of his tenure, Chile went through a severe economic crisis. For one of the country's main export goods, saltpeter, prices had collapsed on the world market due to the invention of artificial fertilizers in Europe. In February 1921, security forces cracked down rioting in the saltpeter mines of San Gregorio with great severity; over seventy people were killed. This “San Gregorio Massacre” cost Alessandri's credibility with trade unions and socialists. The government responded to other strikes with similar violence.

Alessandri did not only receive pressure from the dissatisfied workers, the conservative opposition also made it difficult for him to govern with its parliamentary majority and blocked any possible reform law. The Chilean Army finally appeared increasingly rebellious in the face of poor pay and equipment.

In 1924 the internal political conflict came to a head: Alessandri sought parliamentary approval for a radical restructuring program that was supposed to put the disrupted state finances back in order. In return for approval, it offered MPs the prospect of a generous diet increase. When this regulation was being debated in the Senate on September 2, 1924, a group of protesting officers stormed the hall noisily and interrupted the parliamentary session with a rattle of sabers. Three days later the Comité Militar , an unofficial representation of officers, came to see President Alessandri in the La Moneda presidential palace and ultimately presented him with a series of demands and bills. Alessandri gave in to the pressure, appointed a new cabinet and had the military bill passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate on September 8th. Despite their success in the matter, the officers asked the president to dissolve Congress.

1. Exile

Arturo Alessandri realized that he could no longer fight the insurgent military and resigned. He fled into exile in Argentina and from there to Europe.

Reinstatement as President

Half a year after the coup and after considerable differences within the military leadership, in January 1925, the new junta under Carlos Ibáñez del Campo sought the return of Chile to constitutional order, brought Alessandri back to the office of President on March 12, 1925 and worked on one new constitution. The constitution was passed by popular vote on August 30, 1925 and promulgated by Alessandri on September 15, 1925.

But the country was not to settle down, and Alessandri soon resigned once more - this time in October 1925, when another coup was threatened.

Activity in the central bank and 2nd exile

In 1926 he was re-elected Senator for Tarapacá, but gave up this mandate in favor of a position in the central bank of Chile. When the domestic political archenemy Alessandri, the former dictator Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, was elected President of Chile in 1927, Arturo Alessandri had to leave the country; until his fall in 1931 he lived with his family in Paris .

Return to Chile and presidency 1932-1938

In the course of the parliamentary elections in May 1932, Alessandri returned to the Senate. Again, the legislature was interrupted right at the beginning by a coup d'état: Juan Esteban Montero Rodríguez put himself into office and established a short-lived Socialist Republic. On October 30, 1932, presidential elections were due again. Arturo Alessandri ran with the support of the Liberals, the Radicals and the moderate Social Democrats; he clearly won the election.

As ten years earlier, public interest was focused on the desolate state finances that Treasury Minister Gustavo Ross was supposed to put in order. With a Keynesian demand policy through state investment activity, the government boosted Chile's economy and improved the country's sparse infrastructure.

Introduction of women's suffrage in local elections

During Alessandri's tenure, the municipalities were given a certain degree of self-determination and, for the first time, women had the right to vote in local elections.

Despite his "left" economic policy from today's perspective and some improvements in social affairs, Alessandri was considered a classically conservative president. Although he was elected with the vote of the radicals, he also ruled with a few right-wing ministers. As a result, the Radical Party withdrew its ministers from the cabinet and, with other center-left forces, formed the electoral alliance Frente Popular . In addition to the classic left-wing forces, a strong National Socialist movement also grew as an opposition force in Chile during Alessandri’s presidency , which was mainly supported by the numerous immigrants from Germany and Italy .

After all, Alessandri was able to finish his second term as planned, even if the elections for his successor in autumn 1938 were overshadowed by another threatened coup d'état and Pedro Aguirre Cerda was ultimately elected Chilean president under adventurous circumstances.

Further political activity in the Senate

Arturo Alessandri Palma was re-elected to the Senate in 1944 at the age of 76, this time not for the Tarapacá region, which he had represented for decades, but for the constituency from which he came: Curicó, Talca, Linares and Maule. In 1949, voters in the Santiago region finally sent the 81-year-old to the Chilean Senate for the last time. Arturo Alessandri did not survive this term, however: He died on August 24, 1950 after a heart attack.

Web links

Commons : Arturo Alessandri  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

  • Leslie Bethell (Ed.): Chile Since Independence . 1993, pp. 70-80, 83, 96-107, ISBN 0-521-43987-6

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional: Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional | Historia Política. Retrieved September 11, 2018 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional: Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional | Historia Política. Retrieved September 11, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Alessandri, Arturo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Alessandri Palma, Arturo (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chilean politician
DATE OF BIRTH December 20, 1868
PLACE OF BIRTH at the Longavíd estate in the Linares province
DATE OF DEATH August 24, 1950
Place of death Santiago de Chile