José Antonio Kast’s victory in the Chilean presidential election represents a shift to the right, but it will hardly signify an institutional rupture or the adoption of an authoritarian model in the style of Jair Bolsonaro or Javier Milei.
Although he is today the main representative of a more radical right in Chile, Kast operates within political, cultural and institutional limits that distance him from the intemperate, confrontational and anti-systemic style that has marked recent experiences in the region.
A 59-year-old lawyer, father of nine and practicing Catholic, Kast became president on his third attempt. His political trajectory is conventional: he was an advisor and deputy for four terms before founding, in 2019, the far-right Republican Party. Unlike the “outsiders”, Kast is a professional politician, trained within the structures of the system.
But he is also the first president elected after the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) who never broke with the legacy of the regime. Kast voted “yes” in the 1988 plebiscite that would decide whether the dictatorship would continue. His main political mentor was Jaime Guzmán, central ideologue of the Chilean right, founder of the Independent Democratic Union (UDI) and assassinated by far-left guerrillas in 1991.
Since his first presidential campaign in 2017, Kast has made his positions clear. He has defended closing the border with Bolivia to contain drug trafficking, proposed compulsory religious education in public schools and suggested pardoning military personnel convicted of human rights violations.
He received only 8% of the vote, but he already marked a speech that broke with the historic effort of the post-redemocratization Chilean right to present itself as democratic and institutional, an effort symbolized by the legacy of Sebastián Piñera, a two-term right-wing president who voted “no” in 1988 and condemned the dictatorship’s repression.
In 2021, as head of the Republican Party, Kast begins to speak of a “new right” ready to confront what he calls “the institutional and ideological collapse” of the conservative sector. He defended the reduction of the state, the repeal of the abortion law in three cases, the abolition of the Ministry of Women and the rejection of gender policies. He won the first round with 27.8% of the vote and reached the second, in which he moderated his speech, but was defeated by Boric.
It is worth remembering that Boric, like Michelle Bachelet before him, also migrated to the center throughout his mandate, driven by political and social exhaustion. This is a Chilean model: presidents elected with tougher programs end up being contained by institutions and the electorate.
Kast has not changed his core beliefs. He remains opposed to homosexual marriage, the morning after pill and the law on gender identity, and promises to bring subjects such as God, country and family back into the debate. Their positions are known. It remains to be seen whether he will be able to move forward in this direction in a country that took to the streets for months in 2019, precisely against this type of agenda.
Kast’s election nevertheless marks a historic moment. The far right has never governed Chile since the end of the dictatorship. The Republican Party experienced its first institutional test from 2022 to 2023, when it led the Constitutional Council charged with drafting a new Constitution.
The result was a failure, just as in the previous process, led by the left, the proposal was rejected at the ballot box, signaling society’s weariness with maximalist projects.
Aware of these limitations, Kast designed a campaign more restrained in form, although he ultimately strengthened rhetorical alignment with leaders such as Trump, Bolsonaro, Orbán and Milei. Above all, he demonstrated affinities with the style of the Italian Meloni.
However, he avoided themes likely to alienate moderate voters and focused his speech on an “emergency government” focused on security, economic growth and migration control.
Kast is unlikely to rule alone. He will have to work with the traditional right of the Chile Vamos coalition, which has the technical personnel and administrative experience of the Piñera governments, which requires moderation. At the same time, it will coexist with more radicalized sectors, such as that of MP Johannes Kaiser, of the Libertarian Party. Congress tends to be a space of permanent tension.
Kast’s victory therefore indicates the strengthening of a more assertive and ideologized right, but not necessarily the breakdown of Chilean democracy. The political system, Congress, the judiciary and the electorate acted as effective brakes.
If Kast breaks this pact, Chile could enter uncharted territory. If he respects the Constitution and the institutions, he could end up creating a government little different from those of Boric, Piñera or Bachelet. The coming months will tell us which path will prevail.
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