Chile's Bachelet promises reforms after landslide election win

By Anthony Esposito SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Center-leftist Michelle Bachelet set the stage for the formation of her Cabinet on Monday, a day after sweeping back to power with a huge majority in presidential elections on promises of major tax and education reforms to redress Chile's social divisions. Bachelet won with about 62 percent support, the highest share of votes for any presidential candidate since the country returned to holding democratic elections in 1989. Sunday's landslide victory against Evelyn Matthei, the sharp-tongued conservative candidate of the governing coalition, puts Bachelet back in the Moneda presidential palace after a four-year gap and gives her a mandate to push for an education overhaul and the fiscal reforms to help pay for it. Attention now turns to the details of her program, the bargaining she will need to push reforms through a possibly thorny Congress and which of her colleagues will be appointed as the ministers who can help deliver. "We will do everything we can so when we get to March we can immediately start governing with all the energy, dynamism and effort that is needed to fulfill the mandate handed us by the people," Bachelet said at a news conference on Monday. She is slated to take office on March 11. Bachelet ran on a platform of social policies to address a deep divide between rich and poor. Chile, the world's top copper-exporting nation, is ranked the most unequal country in the 34-member Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. "She will govern a country with profound demands for change," Senator Ricardo Lagos Weber of Bachelet's New Majority coalition told Reuters. "The country isn't flat on its back, it is healthy, organized, growing economically, creating jobs and improving salaries. But it is also deeply unequal." 50 REFORMS IN 100 DAYS Bachelet has promised 50 reforms in 100 days after taking office. Changes to the tax regime - which are due to include a hike in corporate taxes to 25 percent from 20 percent - are likely to be the first new laws that Bachelet tries to push through as she seeks the extra funds needed for education and health reforms, analysts say. Good-quality schooling is generally only available in Chile to those who can pay, and massive student protests demanding change - which sometimes turned violent - hurt the popularity of outgoing conservative President Sebastian Pinera. If Bachelet winds up watering down her promises because slower growth makes increased public spending tricky - or if opposition becomes obstructionist in a Congress that remains divided after parliamentary elections last month - she could herself face popular protests. Last month, Bachelet's bloc clinched the simple majority in both houses of Congress that it needs to pass tax reforms. But for the four-sevenths majority required for education reform, Bachelet will need to enlist independents or opposition legislators in the Senate and House of Representatives - from some of whom she has already received hints of backing. The devil will be in the details of her reform proposals, said Marta Lagos, head of pollster MORI. "Now we're going to see the fine-tuning of the proposals ... the difficulty in Congress will be agreeing on the details of the reforms," Lagos said. Meanwhile, markets are also anxious to hear more on the details of her tax reforms, plans to create a state-run pension fund and who might be tapped to head the crucial Finance Ministry. "While we think most of these concerns are priced into current valuations, this could continue to generate volatility in upcoming months," Diego Celedon at JP Morgan said in a note to clients. Bachelet said on Monday that she will announce her new Cabinet in the latter half of January. Her program chief, Alberto Arenas, is considered a favorite to be finance minister. However, a choice such as ex-Central Bank head Jose de Gregorio, who is seen as a possible member of her Cabinet, would be considered a more moderate option "and would generate more calm in the capital markets," Celedon said. HIGH EXPECTATIONS The start of Bachelet's administration coincides with a period of slower growth for Chile and falling copper prices, which may make higher public spending a juggling act. As well as an ambitious spending program, she has pledged to reduce the effective fiscal deficit from roughly 1 percent of gross domestic product to zero by 2018. "Bachelet has promised a lot, and expectations are high, while the (economic) situation isn't as favorable as it was in recent years," said Patricio Navia, a political scientist and professor at New York University. After expanding 5.6 percent last year, Chile's economy is seen ending 2013 with 4.2 percent growth and hitting between 3.75 percent and 4.75 percent next year. Additionally, the U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to announce a pullback of its bond-buying program sometime soon, with some investors betting this could happen as early as this week. The program has supported riskier assets such as commodities and equities. A tapering of the rate of purchases may heighten global volatility and borrowing costs for Chile and other Latin American countries. It would also hit the price of copper, Chile's key export. Prices of the metal have already slid about 10 percent this year but were up on Monday on hopes of a dovish stance from the Fed this week. The Chilean peso closed up strongly against the dollar on Monday, although traders attributed that to wider bullish markets and the rising copper price. The result of Sunday's election was already priced in, traders said. (Additional reporting by Rosalba O'Brien and Froilan Romero; Editing by Kieran Murray, John Stonestreet, Lisa Von Ahn and Jonathan Oatis)