Chile president promises renewed reform push as popularity slides

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet has pledged to push ahead with policies to reform education, step up union rights and stimulate the economy in an attempt to re-engage an increasingly disillusioned public.

The center-left leader, who began her second term in March 2014, called a meeting of her coalition party leaders on Monday evening to discuss priorities for the next stage of her administration.

"We have decided on a very clear roadmap of our project priorities during this and next year," Bachelet said to reporters after the meeting.

Bachelet, who also led Chile between 2006 and 2010, has seen her former sky-high approval ratings plummet in recent months, dragged down by a slowing economy, money-in-politics scandals, and disillusionment with the pace of promised reforms.

As the slowdown, sparked by a fall in mining investment in the top copper exporter, has eaten into fiscal resources, she has sought to manage expectations.

But the government was still seeking to fulfill its promises and "integrate the current demands of citizens," she said on Monday.

Among key plans, the government wants to make university access free beginning next year, but with economic returns looking shaky only 50 percent of students will now benefit.

It will continue to push forward with labor reform that would strengthen unions, while the process to change the country's dictatorship-era constitution will begin in September, Bachelet said.

She also announced the creation of an infrastructure fund to help get construction going and promised talks to simplify last year's tax reform, which business leaders have criticized for being unclear and crimping investment.

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