two candidates are favorites for the second round in a divided country

The presidential campaign ended Thursday, November 18 in Chile. Voters will vote on Sunday for the first round of a very indecisive election, to elect the successor to conservative President Sebastian Piñera. Faced with a right grouped in the chic districts of the capital around the ultra-conservative candidate José Antonio Kast, the candidate of the broad left-wing coalition Gabriel Boric has opted for a field campaign until the last minute.

Just ten years ago, Gabriel Boric was one of the leaders of one of the three student revolts which today lead Chile to question its social policies. “We were born out of mobilizations and we are fighting to change things”, says Gabriel Boric. Here he is now a candidate for the presidency, at 35, tattooed forearm, raised fist and now trimmed beard.

“What we want is to form a government of hope for change and popular transformation.”

Gabriel Boric, presidential candidate of Chile

Gabriel Boric aspires to make his country a welfare state and to turn his back on the ultra-liberal economic model established under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990). TO Lo Espejo, a disadvantaged town in the south of Santiago de Chile, several thousand Chileans are now forced to go through the soup kitchen every day. The pandemic has not helped matters and the only solution so far is mutual aid. “It is an abandoned sector, completely neglected by the State, says Javiera Reyes who was elected mayor of this municipality four months ago. A neighborhood that has a bad reputation mainly because of drug trafficking. ”

For her, the man for the job can only be Gabriel Boric, candidate of the left-wing coalition “Apruebo Dignidad”, threatened in the polls by José Antonio Kast, supported by supporters of the extreme right. “It’s the same everywhere. In France, you experienced it with Marine Le Pen. We must fight against that, with determination and conviction “, advance Gabriel Boric.

José Antonio Kast refused during the campaign to be labeled a far-right, despite his sympathies for Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, former US President Donald Trump and the Spanish Vox party. This 55-year-old lawyer does not hide his admiration for Augusto Pinochet either. Among his supporters, the speech is clearly uninhibited. Their candidate is the guardian of the temple, of the dictatorship of General Pinochet. “I can understand why my grandparents participated in the coup, explains Consuela. I support everything Pinochet was able to do and I believe Chile needs an iron hand today, because we are on the verge of losing our freedom. ”

José Antonio Kast seems very serene in the podium, surrounded by his wife and nine children. He defends traditional values ​​and pays tribute to the Chilean riflemen injured in the 2019 protests: “Applause for our riflemen, our police officers, our gendarmes, our armed forces, he says to his supporters, who gave themselves so much to keep Chile a free country. Because Chile is, and will remain, a free country. “ Twenty-three dead and nearly 8,000 wounded, this is the result of the revolt of two years ago. The Chilean ultra-conservatives consider that this is the price to pay for living in a free country.