SANTIAGO, Chile. – After Chile met its next president, Gabriel Boric starts moving the last days of his mandate between the institutional processing of the transfer and the political balance a cycle that failed to transcend its character.
The formal gestures have already taken place at La Moneda Palace: The Call the winner José Antonio Kast Sunday evening, personal meeting that took place this Monday between the current and the elected president, and the activation of the Link teams This will shape an orderly transition to the adoption of the March 11, 2026.
The left-wing president who became president at the age of 36 the youngest since the return to democracy, prepares to hand over power to whoever is elected in the runoff, a former ideological rival who embodies the antithesis of the project that led him to the presidency.
“We had hoped that this would put us better on the right track in the process of unity as a bloc, as a sector, and that did not happen for several reasons that will have to be analyzed later,” the President of the Party for Democracy (PPD) admitted to Radio Infinita this week. Jaime Quintanaone of the traditional conglomerates of the Chilean center-left party.
By the way, the blow is double. Analysts agree on this Kast’s coming to power will have a double meaning: It will be like this for the ruling party the conclusion of a political cycle which was created in the heat of the social outbreak and is a concrete example of this Inability because it is not possible to establish succession or maintain continuity.
“Jeannette Jara It is a different leadership than Boric, it is a leadership that included the Communist Party. I think it has more Coalition culture because there have been more coalitions,” said Quintana. The observation revealed another structural weakness of the Frente Amplio in power: the difficulty of articulating stable majorities beyond their original core.
Despite the government’s explicit support, Jara’s candidacy entered Sunday’s runoff with clear disadvantages, making a review of the president’s legacy inevitable. Miguel Ángel Fernández, deputy academic director of Faro UDD, roughly described the balance sheet.
“Gabriel Boric’s management (2022-2026) can be seen as a time of progressive ambition frustrated by the country’s political inefficiency and misinterpretations“He told LA NACION. This diagnosis, he explains, lies at the breaking point of his government: “It was the failure of the 2022 constitutional process that undermined the ability to govern and forced the president to change his government blueprint.”
Mario Herrera Muñoz, a political analyst at the University of Talca, claims that the current government will be characterized by a generational paradox.
“The Boric government will probably be remembered for two reasons. Politically, because it exists.” the substitute bet of the center-left, which eventually turned to the traditional parties to be able to manage the country. “In institutional terms, his legacy is that he ended or silenced the voices of institutional reform,” he explains to this medium.
“Interestingly, the generation that proposed changing the form and substance of politics will be the same generation that will ensure that the institutional foundations remain intact.”he adds. And he adds that if the ruling party manages to remain united after defeat, “it will likely be Boric’s only political legacy that is more of a survival strategy than a programmatic one.”
But the balance is not linear. Claudio Fuentes, director of the Research Institute of Social Sciences at the University of Diego Portales, highlights the advances that have marked this cycle. “There are Aspects of Boric’s social agenda that matterespecially those Reduction of working hours after 40 hours the approval of the Pension reform and a national care plan,” he tells LA NACION.
Even when it comes to security – the most questioned aspect – Fuentes introduces a relevant nuance: “This is the government that has adopted most of the regulations on security issuesincluding a new Ministry of Security and strengthening of crime control and investigation measures.” Several analysts emphasize that this is the paradox of the mandate have enacted more laws as perceptions of insecurity worsened.
At the economic level, Miguel Ángel Fernández emphasizes this the stagnation of growth with an average growth of just under 1.8% and a national debt of around 40% of GDPhas fundamental reasons.
“They show ruthless tax policy The They discouraged investments and capital flight,” he says. Regarding security, Fernández adds: “The Increase in homicides and organized crimetogether with a uncontrolled irregular migration“, forced the government to make changes that contradicted their original speech.
From the right, the reading is no more lenient. Ricardo Hernández, political and social coordinator at the Res Publica Institute, agrees that the result is far from what was forecast for 2021. “President Boric’s legacy will certainly not be the one he imagined at the time of his election,” he tells this medium. He Constitutional rejection of 2022 -his symbolic project- It not only confused the government, but also redefined its scope for action. “Instead, the president chose to promote labor and pension reforms that ultimately benefited his candidate Jeannette Jara,” he points out.
But this bet could not be consolidated either. According to Hernández, “This is a sign that the government has become a burden on its sector.” The ruling party candidate has made it her mission to highlight the differences in governance with the current president more than just defending his legacy.” The distance between the two leaderships ultimately crystallized in the exhaustion of the circuit.
The unknown is now What place will Boric occupy after March 11th?. At 39, he has political time, international visibility and a generational base that still considers him a reference. Fuentes sums it up like this: “He will leave the government at around the age of 40, so he still has twenty or thirty years left to plan his political career and he will most likely take over the leadership of the Frente Amplio.”
Fernández projects an articulating role: “Boric represents a “failed promise.”but due to his youth and the role he may take on Opposition articulator… will have the opportunity to regain a leadership role that will make it possible to reunite left-wing ideas with the social democratic pragmatism of concertation.”
However, this future will also depend on the performance of the next government. Herrera warns that “his government will obviously be better remembered in four years,” especially if Kast’s government fails to live up to the expectations it raises today. Hernández agrees with the current president’s prediction “It will depend a lot on the first 100 days of the next administration.”
As the Ex-Ante website revealed, a team from the so-called second presidential floor has been secretly working there since July this year constructing a “story” for Boric once he leaves power. The task falls to former minister Aisén Etcheberry, the current head of strategic planning for the presidency.
According to senior government sources quoted by this medium, a decision already agreed between the president’s advisers – mainly with ties to the Frente Amplio – is that Boric should be promoted the creation of his own foundation after leaving La Moneda, We follow the path of former presidents such as Ricardo Lagos, Michelle Bachelet and Sebastián Piñera.
Everything indicates that this future foundation will revolve around the idea of funding a “reflection on progressivism”, with a more international than national profile. It is not yet clear whether ministers from his inner circle will accompany him at this point, but the ruling party believes that the central aim is to protect and project the president’s figure after he leaves office.
Boric thus reaches the end of his term in office between opposites: a young president who opens a cycle with the epic of change and closes it with a tense left; a leader who wanted to distance himself from the old references and who today may have to rebuild with them; a leader who has failed to provide continuity but who keeps a window open for the political future due to his age and the need for his sector to reorganize after defeat.
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