As more and more women, men and young people raise their voices and become active in local government, and more local leaders take action for the safety of women and girls, change happens.

My top priority for 2012 will be to make a renewed push for women's economic empowerment and political participation.

The possibility of my presidential candidacy emerged spontaneously in public opinion polls. For my part, I noticed people's affection when I was doing work on the ground. I think the important thing is that my candidacy was born from citizens themselves, driven by the people and which the parties picked up favourably.

We need to reform the constitution in Chile. The current one was written and passed in 1980 during the dictatorship. Some changes were made after the return of democracy, but its origins remain illegitimate. Instead of continuing to make fixes here and there, we need to undertake fundamental changes to our constitution to make it reflect the reality of our democratic society.

For me, a better democracy is a democracy where women do not only have the right to vote and to elect but to be elected.

I was a woman, a divorcee, a socialist, an agnostic . . . all possible sins together.

Gender equality must become a lived reality.