Arturo Alessandri
Arturo Alessandri Palma ( born December 20 1868 the estate Longaví in the province of Linares; † August 24, 1950 in Santiago de Chile) was a Chilean politician. From 1922 to 1925 and from 1932 to 1938, he served as president of his country (see: History of Chile ).
Life
Alessandri was born the third of six children of a wealthy landowner family and visited his home in the school of the Franciscan Order. Subsequently, he studied in Santiago law at the Universidad de Chile, since his graduation in 1893 he worked as a lawyer.
From 1891 on, he wrote next to it for the opposition paper La Justicia; He joined the Liberal Party and was built in 1897 for the first time for his home constituency Curico and Vichuquén - elected to the House of Representatives - in the heart of Chile's wine region.
In July 1894 he married Rosa Esther Rodríguez, with whom he had nine children; Jorge Alessandri Rodríguez among them, which should also take it to the Chilean president.
For the Región de Tarapacá Alessandri was elected in 1915 to the Senate, and in 1920 he won for the Liberals, the presidential election, his election program saw the separation of church and state and the introduction of social legislation foresaw what him in sharp contrast with the Conservatives Church and the army brought.
Alessandri quickly found himself between two stools again, because the left hated him soon. At the beginning of his tenure, Chile went through a severe economic crisis. For one of the main exports of the country, saltpetre, the prices were on the world market plummeted, due to the invention artificial fertilizer in Europe. In February 1921 security forces beat down with great severity riots in the nitrate mines of San Gregorio, while over seventy people lost their lives. This " massacre of San Gregorio " cost Alessandri credibility with trade unions and socialists. More strikes were answered similarly forcibly by the government.
Pressure Alessandri received not only by the dissatisfied workers, even the conservative opposition made him with its parliamentary majority to govern difficult and blocked every possible reform law. The Chilean Army finally showed increasingly rebellious in the face of poor pay and equipment.
1924 came to a head of internal political conflict: Alessandri sought parliamentary approval for a radical restructuring program that would take the devastated state finances in order. In return for the agreement, it provided members a generous diet increase in views. When this regulation on September 2, 1924 debated in the Senate, a group of protesting officers stormed the room noisy and interrupted saber rattling the parliamentary session. Three days later formed the Comité Militar, an unofficial representation of officers who came to President Alessandri in the presidential palace La Moneda, and ultimately presented him with a number of claims and bills. Alessandri was under pressure after appointed a new cabinet, leaving the bill of the military on September 8, decided by the House of Representatives and the Senate. Despite their success on the merits, the officers requested by the President, he should dissolve the Congress.
Arturo Alessandri realized that he could not arrive against the rebellious military and stepped back. He fled into exile Argentine and from there to Europe. Half a year after the coup and after considerable differences within the military leadership, in January 1925 the new junta sought under Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, a Chile's return to constitutional order, Alessandri took on January 27, 1925 back to the office and worked on a new constitution, which was adopted on August 25, 1925 by referendum.
The country but should not come to rest, and Alessandri soon entered a second time - this time in October 1925, when again threatened a coup. In 1926 he was re-elected as senator for the Tarapacá, gave this mandate but in favor of a position at the Central Bank of Chile on.
As the domestic political nemesis Alessandri, the former dictator Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, was elected in 1927 as President of Chile, Arturo Alessandri had to leave the country; until its fall in 1931, he lived with his family in Paris.
During the parliamentary elections of May 1932 Alessandri returned again to the Senate back, Again, the legislature was interrupted at the beginning of a coup: Juan Esteban Montero Rodríguez coup itself into office and established a short-lived Socialist Republic. On October 30, 1932 stood again at presidential elections, Arturo Alessandri candidate with the support of the Liberals, the Radicals and the moderate Social Democrats; he clearly won the election.
Like ten years ago, the public interest has focused on the desolate state finances, which should fix the Finance Minister Gustavo Ross. With a Keynesian demand policy by government investment, the government boosted the economy of Chile and improved the meager infrastructure of the country.
Under Alessandri's tenure, the municipalities received some self-determination, and the first time were the women's right to vote in local elections.
Despite its from today's perspective, "left" economic policies and some improvements in the social sector Alessandri was considered a classic conservative president. Although he was elected with the votes of radicals, he also ruled with some right-wing ministers. This meant that the Radical Party withdrew their ministers from the cabinet and other center-left forces founded the coalition Frente Popular. In addition to the classic leftist forces grew during Alessandri's presidency as an opposition force a strong National Socialist movement in Chile, which was mainly driven by the numerous immigrants from Germany and Italy.
After all, Alessandri could finish his second term as scheduled, even if the elections were to follow him in the fall of 1938 under the shadow of impending coup again and Pedro Aguirre Cerda was ultimately chosen under adventurous circumstances to the Chilean president.
Arturo Alessandri Palma was elected again to the Senate at the age of 76 years in 1944, this time not for the Region of Tarapacá, which he had represented for decades, but for the constituency from which he came: Curico, Talca, Linares and Maule. In 1949, voters sent the Santiago region for the 81 -year-olds for the last time in the Chilean Senate, that term of office, however, was no longer Arturo Alessandri through because he died after a heart attack on 24 August 1950.