I keep an eye on management and am closer to Ronald Reagan than Donald Trump

Trump, Bolsonaro, Milei, Meloni, Ordán, Bukele. The list goes on. The truth is that this Sunday evening in Chile a new ally joined the group: the ultraconservatives José Antonio Kast.

But despite what one might speculate, the new Chilean president He is far from being an “outsider” or a disruptive star in his political spectrum. Kast is a professional politician who grew up ideologically behind the Independent Democratic Union (UDI), one of the parties that are part of the center-right coalition that brought Sebastián Piñera to power. In this party, the German descendant was a member of parliament and tried to become president of his municipality when he felt that the center-right party was making values ​​and social concessions.

José Antonio Kast resigned from the UDI because he was already a well-known figure in Chile. It is essentially a persister. Their ideological arc is that of the post-dictatorship right, in the 1990s: conservative in values ​​and neoliberal in economics.

As a denominational Catholic, he is against abortion, equal marriage and same-sex adoption. However, in his third attack on the presidency of Chile He gave up fighting this cultural battle. Kast has stated that he will not take back acquired rights such as triple abortion or equal marriage and that his government will be an emergency government.

This is where the differences with his group of international allies begin. At least during the election campaign, Kast did not propose a culture war. On the contrary, their task is to fight crime, expel undocumented immigrants and make the country grow by cutting taxes and releasing permits for public works that have been paralyzed: restoring order, something like returning to the Chile of October 17, 2019, a day before the social outbreak.

It is more of a management proposal, similar to Piñera’s, but with a major caveat. In contrast to Piñera, Kast is frontal in his positions and does not recognize the transversal consensus of politics as a goal. He is convinced that he can propose ideas to the country that can build social majorities capable of defending it against their opponents.

He said illegal immigrants had until March 11, the day he took office, to leave voluntarily. In return, they can take all of their belongings with them and will not receive a ten-year entry ban. Since March 11, his proposal has been different: “with what he has,” he emphasized, to expel those who do not have temporary or permanent residence. He indicated that if necessary, he would drive them out through the sky, the sea and the land. For that has already established informal contacts with Peru and Ecuador for a humanitarian corridor to Venezuela, Issuance of the appropriate transit passes.

In the field of public security, its priority is the fight against organized crime, which has made Chilean criminology increasingly violent and cruel. Although the number of murders does not correspond to that of a country in crisis, kidnappings and violent robberies became more frequent under the government of Gabriel Boric.

To this end, he has taken on the role of the Carabineros, who were heavily criticized by the Left during the social outbreak. He has also proposed the military’s involvement in fighting crime and his programmatic security team includes former armed forces generals.

In economic terms, he emphasized the importance of growing again, as in previous decades. Before the explosion. To achieve this, he has proposed cutting taxes, cutting government spending and cutting bureaucratic hurdles so that infrastructure work can be carried out as quickly as possible. According to his team’s calculations, investments totaling $100 billion would be paralyzed.

If you analyze the axes of Kast’s emergency government, There is not much difference to the traditional Chilean right or with other leaders like Reagan or Thatcher. From an ideological point of view, this is therefore a step backwards and a vindication of their ideas, and not a rebellious or “ultra” alternative, as has happened in other countries around the world.

The losers of this past are the politicians of the most modern right, built under the leadership of Sebastián Piñera, who see that their willingness to dialogue and reach agreements has ultimately drawn them into the group that citizens hold responsible for the country’s current situation.

The problem, his critics warn, is that this Sunday’s broad victory could “woke the appetite” to get involved in the culture war or to challenge acquired rights. According to analysts, this would be a scenario of greater confrontation and social tension.

But within Kast’s ranks, politicians like Senator-elect Rodolfo Carter have suggested that the new president must assume he won “on borrowed votes.” “Whoever wins in the second round will get votes that don’t belong to them,” he told Chilean broadcaster Channel 13 this week.

Emergency government, as proposed in the election campaign, or the target of a culture war. That’s him dilemma This will ultimately determine whether Kast will actively participate in the collective agenda of his international allies or whether he will take a Chilean path within the conservative regression at the global level.