Michelle Bachelet shares breakfast with Chile’s elected president

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, met the next president of  Chile, Sebastián Piñera, to carry out the handover of power next March 11.

Bachelet went to the residence of Piñera, in the pompous eastern sector of Santiago, where they shared breakfast. The president left the area without making statements.

On March 11, the center-left coalition that has governed Chile since 1990, will hand out the country’s leadership to the right. “We will facilitate the transfer of command,” said Interior Minister Edmundo Perez Yoma.

Piñera won the presidency with 51.6% of the vote against 48.3% of Eduardo Frei, his opponent in a tight runoff.

Thus, the ruling coalition leaves the presidency after 20 years in office, a period in which poverty was reduced by 13%.

Frei conceded the election early Sunday evening in the company of former (Concertación) presidents Patricio Aylwin and Ricardo Lagos. Frei wished Piñera success as Chile’s next president, but said he and the Concertacion coalition that has governed the past 20 years are leaving power “with our heads held high.”

Former President Lagos spoke, too, wished Piñera well and repeated three times that the Concertacion has heard the nation’s call for a generational change in its political leadership.  Lagos then ceded the platform to three of the Concertacion’s most outstanding young leaders: Carolina Toha, Ricardo Lagos Weber and Claudio Orrego.