voters vote to elect their future president

Two visions of Chile will oppose Sunday, November 21 in the polls: the social transformation promised by Gabriel Boric and the hard conservatism defended by José Antonio Kast. Voters are voting for the first round of a very indecisive election to elect the successor to Tory President Sebastian Piñera. “I like Kast”, smiles Jaime, taxi driver in Santiago. “He’s a serious man, he judges. They stuck the Pinochet label on him, but we are free to vote for who we want, right? “

Friday, a radical fringe of the demonstrators mobilized to demand the release of several dozen prisoners. The social revolt that has shaken the country since 2019 worries Ulysses who wanted to support the candidate during his last meeting. “He is someone who reassures me about security, order, economic progress, liberalism … Since 2019, there is a lot of insecurity, violence, says Ulysses. There is violence on both sides, but the protesters are particularly so. What I like about Kast is that he promises us security. This is the most reassuring for me. “

The far right will only make the situation worse, according to Miguel, and the country doesn’t need that. For him, it will be Boric: “The country is running on its head today, injustices for young people, students, presidents are concerned with nothing but their interests, nothing more.”

Behind the left-wing coalition of Gabriel Boric, young activists, legislative candidates like Nicole Martinez. “It’s a special election that comes after two years of suffering for the country, she explains. There is a real ambition for young people and women to be able to put both feet in institutions. “

“This presidential election catches Chile in a very special moment, estimates on franceinfo Alfredo Joignant, doctor in political science, specialist in Chilean politics. This is what I call a post May 68 Chilean moment. The social protests of October 2019, it was the Chilean May 68 (…) José Antonio Kast embodies a security solution, a physical security solution in the face of a promise from the parties, the left forces and center left, that of social security in the name of universal social rights. And it is this tension, social security against physical security, transformation and order which marks the essence of the stakes of the presidential election. “

Even if its result remains undecided, the first round of the Chilean election has everything of an indicative barometer on the projects proposed by Kast and Boric to Chilean society.