The eight candidates for the presidency of Chile participated on Monday evening in the final debate organized by the National Television Association (Anatel), six days before the elections scheduled for November 16, and unlike the other meetings, they chose confrontation. In a forum that lasted more than three hours, the far-right Jose Antonio Cast directed his attacks on the government of Gabriel Buric and the official candidate, Janet Jara, the communist activist, which he described on several occasions as “continuity.” Both of them, according to the latest known opinion polls, are the most likely candidates to advance to the second round scheduled for December 14. Evelyn Matthey, the standard bearer of the traditional right, questioned Cast on several occasions, because the opposition constitutes the main source of tension at this stage of the campaign, but the Republican Party candidate did not deal with the economist and did not move from his strategy of attacking the left in all its dimensions. The only person who might have stayed true to his text and style, without coming into conflict with rivals, was Johannes Kaiser, the ultra-liberal who replaced Matthi in third place, and who promised to “toughen the punishment for all crimes” and change the current law that allows abortion in three circumstances, especially for rape.
But even Jara, who was labor minister in Buric’s government, distanced himself from the president, and when asked about the way the Chilean president greeted Argentine President Javier Miley – as he did not rise from his seat to shake hands with the leadership change in Bolivia over the weekend – the candidate confirmed: “I would have greeted Miley standing.” He also pointed out that he has a different style than Buric, who will hand over power next March 11, when he recently turned forty years old.
Jara, Kast, Kaiser and Mathe are the ones with options to get to La Moneda, but they sparred with populist Franco Baresi, independent Harold Mayne Nicholls (former president of Chilean football), far-left Eduardo Artes and Marco Enríquez Ominami (former socialist running for president for the fifth time), all of whom received less than 10% according to opinion studies. Unlike other forums, applicants took risks in front of television viewers, although Kast was noted to be very disciplined and cautious. He hinted at his definitions in moral terms – he said he believed in life from conception to death – but strategically, as he did in this campaign, he focused not on individual liberties, but on defending what he saw as a priority: emergency government.
Mathey said tonight that he does not like Kast’s emergency government, because he made it clear that Chile has a priority, which is public insecurity, but at the same time other needs, such as health, education and housing. Matthe was the first to use colloquial expressions in the discussion – Chile said so He will go to the top If the Aragua train and terrorism were not encountered – but he was not the only one. Gaara: “There are those who have fewer streets than slippers.” “Professor Chantesy,” Enriquez told Parisi. Shantaliar. Parisi, in turn, reminded Mathy that she did not have a degree in commercial engineering. The statements revealed the candidates’ willingness to take risks in the countdown to this campaign, as six of the eight will default starting Sunday. These disagreements were accompanied by other great disagreements, such as the one about which Matthay spoke: he said at least twice that the criminals in his government “would go to prison or the cemetery.”
In the discussion, obligatory topics were covered, in addition to crime, such as the economy, Venezuela, human rights, the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, and the struggle of Janet Jara, who confirmed her openness to freezing her membership in the Communist Party or, directly, giving up the political force in which she had been active since she was fourteen years old. “Security measures were not discussed, they were practiced. I’m not afraid, those who should be afraid are criminals,” Mathie, who was less reserved than on other occasions, asked Cast for his appearance with armored glass at an event in Viña del Mar, in his line of not entering into disqualifications with other right-wing candidates, which he will need starting Monday if he is the one to go to a runoff with Jara.
And at the last minute, there was a boom: Kaiser, who is wresting voters from Mathey and Kast, received the former Piñera minister on her 72nd birthday. He gave her a pink flower and she placed it on her neck.
About The Author
