Eduardo Alfredo Juan Bernardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle (; born 24 June 1942) is a Chilean politician and civil engineer who served as president of Chile from 1994 to 2000. He was also a Senator, fulfilling the role of President of the Senate from 2006 to 2008. He attempted a comeback as the candidate of the ruling Concertación coalition for the 2009 presidential election, but was narrowly defeated. His father was Eduardo Frei Montalva, president of Chile from 1964 to 1970.
His presidency was marked by a consolidation of Chile's transition to democracy albeit the indictment and arrest of Augusto Pinochet in his last year of government heated up national politics. Economically, he oversaw a period of rapid economic growth that was only temporarily stunted by the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
In the 2020s he has taken political positions different from those of the Christian Democratic Party aligning more with the views of centrist and right-wing parties in the constitutional referendums of 2022 and 2023.El expresidente Eduardo Frei, a favor de la nueva Constitución de Chile: “No es un voto por la extrema derecha” El País.
Early life Frei was born in Santiago to Eduardo Frei Montalva and María Ruiz-Tagle Jiménez. He received all his schooling at the Luis Campino Institute. He then attended the University of Chile, where he graduated as a civil engineer, specializing in hydraulics. After graduation, he followed advanced courses in management in Italy.
Political career Frei took his first steps in politics while at the university, where he was a student leader. In 1958, he joined the Christian Democrat party, and in 1964 participated actively in his father's successful presidential campaign. Between 1969 and 1988 he concentrated on his profession, as one of the partners of Sigdo Koppers S.A., the largest engineering company in Chile.
In 1988 Frei founded and promoted the Comité Pro Elecciones Libres ("Committee for the promotion of free elections"). In 1989, he was elected Senator for Santiago, obtaining the highest number of votes in the whole country. In the Senate, he presided over the Treasury and Budget Commission and was a member of the Housing Commission.
Presidency
Elections Frei participated as a pre-candidate in the primary elections held on 23 May 1993 among supporters and members of the parties that made up the Coalition of Parties for Democracy, prevailing with 60.7% of the votes and defeating socialist Ricardo Lagos, former minister of education and a staunch opponent of the military dictatorship, who obtained 39.2%.El Mercurio (Santiago), 24 May 1993, p. A1.La Segunda (Santiago), 28 May 1993, p. 21. Frei was chosen as candidate for the presidency of the Republic.
In the presidential election of December 1993 six candidates ran, and Frei was elected with 57.98% of the votes (4,040,497, becoming the first to surpass the four million mark). The second-highest vote total was obtained by the centre-right Arturo Alessandri Besa – grandson of the two-time president Arturo Alessandri – (with 24.41% of the vote), the third by the economist José Piñera Echenique – who had been a minister of state under Pinochet – (with 6.18% of the vote), the fourth by the also economist Manfred Max-Neef (with 5.55% of the vote), the fifth by the priest Eugenio Pizarro Poblete (with 4.70% of the vote), and the sixth by the businessman Cristián Reitze Campos (with 1.17% of the vote). Although as of the date of the election (in December 1993) the 1980 Political Constitution established that the presidential term was eight years, once elected but before taking office, Constitutional Reform Law No. 19,295 was enacted (published on 4 March 1994, seven days before Frei took office), which changed the presidential term, reducing its duration to six years.
Overview On 11 March 1994, he assumed the presidency, receiving the presidential sash from the president of the Senate, Gabriel Valdés Subercaseaux – who had been minister of foreign affairs throughout the government of Frei Montalva –, and succeeding his party colleague Patricio Aylwin.La Nación, Santiago, 12 March 1994, p. 8-9.Las Últimas Noticias, Santiago, 12 March 1994, p. 2.El Mercurio, Santiago, 12 March 1994, p. A3.
Frei's presidency was notable in making improvements in health and education as well as reducing poverty.clubmadrid.org
Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle had particularly good relations with his Argentine counterpart Carlos Menem. During Frei's tenure the Laguna del Desierto territorial dispute with Argentina was solved, albeit the arbitrage favoured the Argentine position.
He was succeeded by Ricardo Lagos in 2000.
Following the end of his presidency, Frei assumed, as a former President, a seat as senator-for-life in Congress.
Government program
According to his first speech before the Plenary Congress, which took place on 21 May 1994, his administration aimed to fulfill six "Great National Tasks", which, in his view, the country had the "historic" opportunity to achieve.El Mercurio, Santiago, 12 March 2000, p. D25.El Mercurio, (Santiago), 22 May 1994, p. D25. Broadly speaking these were: to consolidate economic development, continuing the path followed to achieve "development with equity"; to "overcome extreme forms of poverty"; to modernize labour relations; to build a modern educational system; to create an efficient and equitable health system; and to deepen Chile's "international integration".
In the first proposal, which would serve as the basis for achieving the next four, there stood out the inflexible fight against inflation, austerity and increased savings, high and sustained growth, increases in real wages, greater consumption by lower-income families, and deeper trade openness and levels of competitiveness.
The final task, meanwhile, rested on "uncompromising respect for international law", within what he called "a diplomacy for development". It also emphasized the deepening of the internationalization of the Chilean economy, through agreements and alliances; the country's participation in initiatives "aimed at achieving peace, the extension of democracy and respect for human rights, and the development of social equity in the international system", seeking a "multiple and balanced integration into the world".
Economic management
Viewed from a strictly quantitative standpoint, his mandate fulfilled the goal of expanding the economy, particularly in the first four years of his term, a period in which the gross domestic product (GDP) advanced at average rates of 7.8%.Central Bank of Chile In 1998, that situation changed abruptly, because GDP grew only 3.23% in 1996 pesos according to the so-called original series published by the Central Bank. The slowdown, brought about by the fall in exports as a consequence of the Asian financial crisis, was accentuated by a strong process of internal adjustment, with high interest rates.
As a result of this episode, the economy contracted by 0.76% in 1999. Four quarters of activity in the red had technically placed the country in its first recession since the beginning of the 1980s, in the midst of the military dictatorship.
Apart from the criticisms of the handling by his minister of finance, the also Christian Democrat Eduardo Aninat, and of his party colleague in the autonomous Central Bank, Carlos Massad, undoubtedly the bitterest face of the crisis lay in the explosive increase in national unemployment, which came to surpass the two-digit barrier in May 1999 with 10.10%, directly or indirectly affecting thousands of Chileans.
This recession had as its backdrop a severe energy crisis, derived from the drought that struck the Andean country, which depended on water-based generation. This led to progress in interconnection with Argentina for the transport of natural gas, a development that would sharply lower costs.El Mercurio, Santiago, 11 April 1999, p. D6.El Mercurio, Santiago, 14 March 1999, p. D6.
In the matter of fighting poverty, economic growth made it possible for the bottom 20% of the population to increase its consumption capacity by 10%.
In the field of infrastructure, the Ministry of Public Works (MOP), led for most of the time by the future president Ricardo Lagos, continued the route traced by the previous administration, with concession projects that managed to inject billions of dollars into roads and airports. The most emblematic works of the period were the second carriageway along the Pan-American Highway between La Serena and Puerto Montt with an investment of about US$1500 million, and the modernization of Santiago's Arturo Merino Benitez Airport for about US$200 million. All in all, the greatest work of the period and of the entire decade was Line 5 of the Santiago Metro, which made it possible to link the city centre with the populous commune of La Florida.El Mercurio, Santiago, 6 April 1997, p. A1.
In the matter of privatizations, the Chilean state raised about US$1800 million during the period from the sale of strategic stakes in the water companies Essel, Essal, Emos and Esval, which were handed over to operators with vast experience, such as the Agbar Group or Iberdrola, with the commitment to improve their management and invest resources in networks and systems.
The country's main ports also passed into private hands during the period, on the basis of a modernization policy defined in 1995 and ratified by the Parliament. Thus, in 1999 the handover of berths in Valparaíso, San Antonio and San Vicente was completed in exchange for US$294 million.El Mercurio, Santiago, 13 August 1999, p. A1.
At this point it is worth noting, lastly, the incorporation of private capital into Empresa Electrica Colbun Machicura, one of the largest in the country, in 1997.Colbun institutional website
Social policies
From the educational point of view, his administration, as a result of greater economic growth, contributed more resources to the system, a fact that allowed concrete advances such as curricular reform, the extension of the school day, the increase of infrastructure, and the Enlaces Network. With respect to teachers, the greatest benefit came in the reform of the Teaching Statute in 1995, training scholarships, and salary increases, although they were not satisfied and repeatedly expressed their discontent through major strikes.
Separate mention deserves the announcement of the closure of the coal-mining deposit of Lota, dependent on the state-owned Empresa Nacional del Carbon (Enacar), made by the government in April 1997. The measure, described as inevitable in light of the impossibility of meeting annual production targets and halting the high and growing costs, triggered a focus of agitation that was only resolved months later through extraordinary allocations of fiscal resources. Enacar, with its workforce of 1,350 workers, was the main source of employment in the city located in the central-southern zone of the country.El Mercurio, (Santiago), 17 April 1997, p. A1.
Environmental policies Highly questioned were the decisions he made in environmental matters. A first case considered emblematic was the final approval of the construction of Arauco's Valdivia plant in San Jose de la Mariquina, which had been approved with conditions in 1996 by the same local authorities gathered in the Corema.El Mercurio, Santiago, 31 May 1996, p. C9.El Mercurio, Santiago, 28 October 1998, p. B3.
Also generating controversy was the construction of the Ralco hydroelectric plant of the National Electricity Company (Endesa) in the Biobio Region, on lands belonging to the Pehuenche people since ancestral timesEl Mercurio, Santiago, 10 June 1997, p. A1. and the signing of the mining treaty with Argentina, which made possible the installation of Pascua Lama,El Mercurio, Santiago, 20 August 1999, p. A1.El Mercurio, Santiago, 26 August 1999, p. C3. as well as the study of mining projects such as Vicuna, Amos-Andres, Las Flechas and El Pachon.