Status: 11/22/2021 4:34 a.m.
Chile is facing political upheaval. A left-wing protest leader and an ultra-right-wing Pinochet sympathizer are likely to be in the runoff election for the presidency.
After the first round of the presidential election in Chile on Sunday, an exchange of blows between the political extremes over the highest office of state is emerging in the South American country. The right-wing candidate José Antonio Kast, of German origin, received a good 28 percent of the vote, as the electoral office announced. Around 25 percent of the voters voted for the young left-wing politician Gabriel Boric.
This means that the two applicants from the extreme fringes of the political spectrum should move into the runoff election on December 19. Kast of the Republican Party wants to cut taxes, limit immigration and crack down on criminals. He has never clearly distanced himself from the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) and sympathizes with the far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Some Chilean media classify Kast as right-wing extremists and fascists.
Left-wing politician Boric ended up in second place.
Image: REUTERS
The parallel party structure is history
The only 35 year old candidate Boric from the left-wing electoral alliance “Apruebo Dignidad” (I agree with the dignity) is promoting the expansion of the welfare state, climate protection and women’s rights. “Chile was the cradle of neoliberalism, it will also be its grave,” said the former student leader and MP for the Magallanes region during the election campaign.
The traditional party structure in Chile is now history due to the election results. For the first time since the return to democracy in 1990, traditional center-left and center-right parties did not even make it to the runoff election. The economist Franco Parisi also caused a surprise, with a good 13 percent of the vote, relegating well-known candidates such as Sebastián Sichel from the government alliance “Chile Vamos” and the former Senate President Yasna Provoste from the Christian Democratic Party. The libertarian politician doesn’t even live in Chile and still ended up in third place.
Country in crisis
For a long time Chile was seen as a positive example in a region marked by poverty, violence and political unrest. The country has the highest per capita income in South America, and poverty has been reduced significantly in recent decades. In addition, Chile has an active civil society; since the return to democracy, moderate left and right governments have alternated.
Today Chile is in crisis: the government has declared a state of emergency in some regions in the south of the country due to arson attacks and attacks by radical indigenous people from the Mapuche people. President Sebastián Piñera narrowly escaped impeachment proceedings over a questionable mining deal last week. The country also suffers from great social inequality.