Santiago de Chile, December 14 (EFE). – Chile made a turn to the right this Sunday with the overwhelming victory in the presidential elections of José Antonio Kast, who became the first Pinochetista to come to power after the end of the dictatorship 35 years ago.
With more than 99% of votes counted, the 59-year-old ultra-conservative former MP received 58.17% of the vote, almost 17 points more than left-wing Jeannette Jara, who received 41.83%.
“We will once again be the country that fills us with so much pride,” the ultra-conservative lawyer claimed in his first speech as president-elect to thousands of supporters at the doors of his command in Santiago.
Below are the keys to elections that confirm the so-called “Chilean pendulum”, a trend that has been repeated since 2006 and in which no president has handed over the presidential sash to a successor with the same political example:
Kast, who succeeds Gabriel Boric, a leader of a new Latin American left, in March, won in the country’s 16 regions, scoring the second-largest second-round victory since the return to democracy, after former progressive President Michelle Bachelet’s 24.3-point victory in 2013.
In a lengthy speech lasting almost an hour in which he thanked God several times, the former MP and father of nine promised to be “the president of all Chileans” and to “restore respect for the law throughout the territory, without exceptions, without privileges”.
“Chile is going through a real change that you will soon see,” said Kast, who based his campaign on a strong hand against crime and illegal migration and tried at all costs to hide his sympathy for the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) and his ultra-conservative positions on individual freedoms.
“The key to Kast’s victory was the government’s referendum, taking into account citizens’ priorities (security, migration and economy) and not focusing their energy on the so-called culture war,” Rodrigo Espinoza of Diego Portales University told EFE.
The big unknown is what kind of government Kast will form and whether the Republican Party leader will allow himself to be carried away by his most radical forces or will try to move closer to the Chile-Vamos coalition’s traditional right to reach consensus in a parliament without majorities.
Although Jara won in the first round at the head of the broadest progressive coalition in history, she failed to win new support or overcome the unpopularity of a government of which she was labor minister, inflicting one of the left’s biggest defeats in decades.
The communist activist assured in her speech that “one learns the most in defeat” and called for “unity” in the coalition she represents to form a “propositive” but “demanding and firm” opposition.
“The unknown is what will happen to the ruling party when Kast takes office. I think Jara is right when he says that it must be a non-obstructive opposition. The success of the opposition lies precisely in being proactive and not reactive and managing to transform itself into a real alternative government,” Octavio Avendaño from the University of Chile told EFE.
As tradition requires, the outgoing president congratulated the winner in a call broadcast on official television, in which Boric invited Kast to La Moneda on Monday and declared that he was “very proud of democracy, regardless of those who celebrate, of those who are sad about today’s result.”
In a subsequent speech at government headquarters, Boric called on his former political rival – he beat him in the 2021 presidential election – to “build bridges” and “listen” and promised to lead a “simple and orderly” transfer of power.
The former student leader, who will leave office in March aged just 40 and with 30% approval, had a complex mandate in which he failed to deliver on most of his campaign promises and was marked by two failed electoral processes, an economic downturn and a rise in crime, as well as a sense of insecurity.
The overwhelming victory strengthens the ultra-transition that is taking place in the region and sparked joy among various leaders with whom Kast maintains close relations and with whom he meets in various international bodies such as the Political Conference of Conservative Action or the Madrid Forum.
One of the first to respond was Argentina’s Javier Milei, who said he would work with Kast “so that America embraces the ideas of freedom and frees itself from the oppressive yoke of 21st century socialism.”
The leader of the Spanish Vox party, Santiago Abascal, also published a message on his networks in which he described Kast as a “dear friend and ally” and congratulated the Chilean people “for choosing truth, freedom and prosperity with a clear and overwhelming choice.”
“We are confident that under his leadership, Chile will advance shared priorities such as strengthening public safety, ending illegal immigration and revitalizing our trade relations,” added US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Maria M. Mur
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