Deputy and former student leader Gabriel Boric was the winner of the Chilean presidential election, which had the second round held this Sunday (19). His opponent, conservative lawyer José Antonio Kast acknowledged the defeat and congratulated Boric on his “great victory”.
With 96% of the ballots counted, Boric appears with 55.8% of the votes, compared to 44.2% of Kast, according to the official results.
At 35, the leftist deputy will be the youngest president in Chilean history.
“We want to move towards a welfare state. The title they put me doesn’t worry me. If you’re a Social Democrat, that’s fine,” said Boric, who is considered “extreme left” by the Chilean right, during the last debate before the second of the elections, at the end of a campaign marked by controversy.
Boric wants to “bury” neoliberalism in Latin America
Former student leader and congressman Gabriel Boric sees clearly: Chile can only overcome social and economic inequality, as well as heal the wounds of the popular uprising of 2019, with a stronger state and better basic services.
A fervent critic of the neoliberal model installed during the military dictatorship and consolidated throughout the democratic transition, the leftist candidate intends to build a welfare state in the country similar to that of European countries, with a strong environmental, feminist and regionalist stamp.
“If Chile was the height of neoliberalism in Latin America, it will also be its cemetery,” said Boric, still during the campaign for the left-wing coalition Aprovo Dignidade, formed by the Frente Amplio and the Communist parties.
yaw center left
Since finishing second in the first round, held on November 21, with 25.8% of the vote, two percentage points less than his opponent, José Antonio Kast, Boric has moderated his speech to win over the center voters and scare away the fear generated in the market.
The leftist candidate opposed the legacy of the Christian Democrat and Socialist coalition that ruled the country for three decades after the end of the dictatorship. This was during the period in which he led the Federation of Students at the University of Chile and also in his early years as an elected deputy.
Boric, however, since the release of the results of the first round, has shifted towards the traditional centre-left, to the point of having won the support of former presidents Ricardo Lagos and Michelle Bachelet.
“I never said that these 30 years were lost. I believe that every generation has the right and the duty to critically analyze what our predecessors did, in order, precisely, to learn from it”, said the candidate, during the last debate with Kast, the Monday before the vote.
“Divisions do not allow for progress in social justice,” added Boric.
In the economic field, the deputy is in favor of a new pension system to replace the current one, with individual capitalization and inherited from the dictatorship. In addition, it plans an ambitious tax reform, which includes greater burdens on the super rich and mining companies.
Boric’s initial goal was to collect 8% of GDP, but now he has a goal of achieving 5% in four years – already including fiscal consolidation in the government’s program.
“We proposed to move forward with great responsibility, because all permanent expenditure has to be financed by permanent revenue. Because of that, one of our commitments is that we will move forward step by step,” said the leftist candidate.
In addition, Boric plans to create a National Development Bank, forgive university loans, reduce Chile’s working hours to 40 hours a week, and create a universal health fund.
Chile’s youngest president
Born in Punta Arenas, in the south of the country, in 1986, Boric was the target of attacks for his age and lack of experience outside politics. With his victory, he will be the youngest president in Chilean history.
The figures closest to the candidate highlight his trajectory as a student leader. Boric’s right-hand man is fellow deputy Giorgio Jackson, who was first elected to Parliament in 2014 and founded the Frente Amplio three years later.
In the final stretch of the campaign for the second round, he brought to the team Izkia Siches, president of the country’s Medical College, a specialist in health who gained popularity during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Boric’s main electoral strongholds are Santiago and Valparaiso, in northern Chile. On the other hand, other regions of the north and south are the weak points of the leftist candidate and where Kast led by a wide margin, thanks mainly to a speech against violence, migration and for order.
Aware of this, the deputy reinforced the agenda on public safety and promised to increase the number of police in the country’s most dangerous neighborhoods, in addition to restoring tranquility to the epicenter of the 2019 social upheaval, Praça Itália, where groups of hooded people continue to protest regularly, including with some disturbances.
“The law has to be complied with. There can be no permanent disturbances on Fridays,” Boric said in the latest electoral debate.
The more traditional right labels the deputy as “extreme left” and constantly recalls the meeting he had, in 2018, with Ricardo Palma Salamanca, convicted of the murder of former conservative senator Jaime Guzmán, considered the father of the current Chilean Constitution .
Boric apologized, as did he after a young feminist activist accused him of harassment, an episode that surfaced in the final stretch of the campaign and was widely used by Kast voters on social media.
“When I make a mistake, I am able to correct it and ask for forgiveness,” said the left-wing deputy.
The woman herself who revealed the case involving Boric made a public demonstration to condemn the issue having become the subject of this year’s electoral campaign.
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