Chile's presidential election: three questions on Sunday's election, dominated by extremes ·Global Voices
Hard to make more polarized. The presidential election in Chile, the second round of which takes place on Sunday, 19 December, sees two diametrically opposed candidates: Gabriel Boric, described as "left of the left", and José Antonio Kast, his far right rival, who came first in the first round. Franceinfo looks back on the turbulent campaign that gave rise to this unprecedented election in Chile.
1Who are the two candidates competing for the second round?
Of the seven candidates in the first round, Chile's extreme right tenor, José Antonio Kast, scored the best with 27.95% of the vote, just ahead of radical left deputy Gabriel Boric, who received 25.71% of the vote. A historic achievement for Chile, since the end of the Pinochet dictatorship and the return to democracy in 1990, the country has been ruled exclusively by moderate centre-right and centre-left parties.
On the far right side, José Antonio Kast is a 55-year-old lawyer and former member of Parliament who heads a populist coalition composed of the Republican Party and the Christian Conservative Party. Fiercely opposed to the right to abortion and same-sex marriage (which will be allowed in Chile from March 2022), he defended an ultra-liberal economy and said he was nostalgic for the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, who was responsible for more than 3,000 deaths and countless acts of torture between 1973 and 1990.? "we will return to peace, order, progress and freedom," he said the evening of the first round.
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At the other end of the political spectrum, Gabriel Boric is a very active radical left activist during the student protests that shook Chile in 2011, before supporting the huge wave of social protests that took place at the end of 2019. At the age of 35, he was an unlabelled member of Parliament but was supported by a broad left coalition, including communists, environmentalists and centre-left figures. In 2020, he was a key player in organizing the drafting of a new Constitution to replace the current text, unchanged since the dictatorship. Gabriel Boric promises more rights for workers and defends a predominantly social democratic programme.
2. How was the election campaign?
The debates of the last few months have focused on extremely divisive topics: abortion, the rights of women, indigenous people and homosexuals, memory of the dictatorship, corruption of the political class... Issues that have been addressed both on television and by Chilean parliamentarians, since the right to abortion and same-sex marriage have recently been the subject of legislative proposals-and fierce opposition.
But the arms passes have sometimes been more virulent, especially on the side of José Antonio Kast, who has multiplied personal attacks on Gabriel Boric, even spreading false information. As France 24 pointed out, the left-wing candidate had recently had to publish the results of a negative drug test after his rival implicitly accused him of drug use. The camp of the left-wing candidate, overwhelmed by unfounded accusations, has repeatedly denounced a "dirty campaign" on the part of José Antonio Kast. The first round suffered a strong abstention (about 53%), although the same level as in the 2017 election.
3In what context is this election taking place?
The outgoing President, billionaire Sebastian Pinera, who is quoted in the Pandora Papers, is about to leave the reins of a bloody country. After several years of popular protests and difficult reforms, Chile is plagued by major political divisions. The aftermath of the clashes in October 2019, between security forces and protesters disputing an increase in the price of the metro ticket, is still painful. Despite a series of social measures, the authorities fear new waves of protests, such as the one that brought together 1.2 million people in Santiago on 25 October 2019.
In this copper-rich country, but one of the most unequal in the world, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), popular protest over access to education and public services is far from over. And regardless of which candidate is chosen by voters on Sunday, bringing together such a divided Chile will prove to be an extremely difficult task.?
