Two candidates at the opposite end of the political spectrum. José Antonio Kast for the far right and Gabriel Boric for the left, qualified, Sunday, November 21, for the second round of the presidential election in Chile, confirming the decline of traditional parties two years after the social revolt. A new Constitution, a strong demand from the demonstrators in 2019, is also being drafted.
According to quasi-final results (95.58% of the ballots), José Antonio Kast, ex-deputy and lawyer of 55 years, obtains 27.95% of the votes, in front of Gabriel Boric, former student leader and deputy of 35 years, who receives 25.71% of the vote.
“We will find peace, order, progress and freedom”, said in front of hundreds of supporters the leader of the Republican Party (far right), admirer of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and American Donald Trump. “We have heard from a majority of Chileans who want a country at peace and security”, added this father of nine children, who intends to maintain the ultraliberal model inherited from the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).
Gabriel Boric, candidate of the left coalition “Apruebo dignidad” which includes in particular the Communists, defended on his side “a transformative, serious and responsible project, which guarantees the best quality of life for all of you”. “We didn’t take to the streets to keep everything the same”, launched to his supporters the former leader of the Federation of Students of the University of Chile, in reference to the unprecedented wave of social protest that shook Chile at the end of 2019.
The presidential election is taking place in a Chile in the midst of doubt, two years after tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to demand a fairer society in this country rich in copper, but among the most unequal in the world, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).