In his third attempt, José Antonio Kast won the presidency of the ultra-right in Chile, after winning the second round of elections on Sunday against leftist Jeannet Jara, who admitted defeat. More moderate than other leaders of the same ideology, this fervent Catholic promises a “relentless” plan to restore security and order in the country.
- Context: Chile’s presidential elections take place against a backdrop of far-right growth, political fatigue and fear of violence
- Chakra Guga: Will the Chilean far right be the same in Brazil and Argentina?
Kast, 59 years old and father of nine children, is an uncompromising and ultra-conservative lawyer: he rejects abortion even in cases of rape, the emergency contraceptive pill, divorce, same-sex marriage and euthanasia.
He has been in politics for 30 years without the stridency of right-wing leaders like Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro or Argentina’s Javier Milei, with whom he is compared.
“He has a much more conservative character and does not have a very charismatic personality,” Robert Funk, professor of political science at the University of Chile, told AFP.
His accomplishments as a congressman are limited to approving laws allowing the installation of statues, the sale of reading glasses without a prescription, granting a Chilean passport to a nun, and regulating lotteries.
An admirer of the dictatorship imposed by Augusto Pinochet from 1973 to 1990, he won the support of Chileans by promising to fight crime head-on and expel nearly 340,000 irregular immigrants, most of them Venezuelans.
The feeling of insecurity far outweighs the evidence that Chile is a country ravaged by crime, despite the increase in crime in recent years.
— This government has generated chaos, disorder and insecurity. And we will do the opposite – says Kast, who will take office on March 11, during the campaign.
He was elected in the middle of a conservative wave sweeping Latin America and after Donald Trump’s second victory in the United States.
Armored and with a revolver
The founder of the Republican Party held several campaign events behind bulletproof glass and revealed that he owned a five-shot revolver. One of his promises is to increase the offensive capacity of the police.
However, “he seems very sober, very pragmatic, very thoughtful and very calm compared to the other” leaders to whom he is compared, estimates journalist Amanda Marton, co-author of the book “Kast, the Chilean ultra-right”.
- Obstacle: Chile’s next president will face resistance from a divided Congress
He is married to María Pía Adriasola. In 2017, his wife reported in an interview that Kast had forbidden her from using birth control pills.
Kast is the youngest of ten children of a German couple who immigrated to Chile and built and inherited a successful sausage business. Journalistic investigations revealed in 2021 that his father was a member of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party. But Kast’s father claimed he was forcibly conscripted into the German army during World War II and denied being a Nazi.
Retiree María Eugenia Rosas, 69, is attracted by his manners and frankness:
“He doesn’t get angry, he doesn’t insult and he doesn’t provoke,” she told AFP in Temuco (south).
On the other hand, Erika Arredondo, a 70-year-old retiree, feels fear.
— He’s like the boy in the wolf story. A wolf disguised as a good person — she said to Santiago.
His accession to power represents the first victory of the ultra-right since the end of the dictatorship.
Always impeccably dressed, he would sometimes smile during tense moments of campaign debates. Although he generally remains calm, he can be bossy, according to former colleagues.
“Either you are with him or he is against you,” Lily Zúñiga, who worked with him in the Independent Democratic Union (UDI), where he served for two decades, told AFP. — He feels that he was not born for lesser things.
Kast resigned from the party in 2016 because he considered that the party no longer “transmitted the ideas” it defended.
Three years later, he founded the Republican Party, which he led with a mixture of “personal sympathy” and “strict control,” according to Javiera González, co-author of the book “Kast, the Messiah of the Chilean Right.”
His campaign spokesperson, Mara Sedini, highlights his “work ethic”.
— He is stubborn when it comes to things that require stubbornness, but he is also capable of being flexible and continuing to learn.
In this campaign, he relegated to the background the conservative social agenda, which cost him votes in 2021, to focus on security and attack immigration, which he considers a plot of the “radical left” aimed at ending freedoms.
— Some say he moderated his speech, but he did not. He simply avoided anything that could cost him votes — explains Claudia Heiss, political analyst at the University of Chile.
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