By Emir Sader on December 14, 2021
Boric versus Kast
Chile has had a long tradition of institutional continuity. Since 1820, when the national state was established, there were only two moments of institutional rupture, one in the 1890s, another in the 1920s, both very short.
That was until the brutal rupture of the 1973 coup. Pinochet ordered the bombing of La Moneda, the presidential palace, and, with it, the most dramatic rupture of Chilean democracy, which lasted until 1990. Then a moderate democratic transition took over until the massive popular mobilizations of 2019.
Those Mobilizations have achieved a Constituent Convention, with equal representation between men and women and with specific representation of the Mapuche. A Convention that elected a Mapuche leader to chair it.
At the same time, the presidential elections were held, with the surprising result of the first place for the candidate of the extreme right, José Antonio Kast, with a two-point lead over the candidate of the new Chilean left, Gabriel Boric, of the Frente Amplio.
Kast overcame the candidate of President Sebastián Piñera, supported by the traditional Chilean right wing, who comes out highly discredited by the failure of his government, but also for appearing in the Pandora Papers.
Boric is aformer student leader, direct participant of the great mobilizations of the last years, who barely turned 35 years old, the minimum age to be a candidate for president of Chile. Boric defeated the Communist Party candidate in the left-wing internal elections.
Since then, the polls have oscillated between clear advantages for Boric, and then Kast rebounded, giving him an advantage of four points, one week before the second round of the elections.
The fluctuations will most likely be maintained until the last moment, especially because of the 53% abstention rate in the first round. This figure is even higher among young people and the poorest strata of the population in particular. The campaign for the second round has been largely focused on the search for this huge contingent, existing due to the decision of some years ago of not making voting compulsory – a decision that must be reviewed by the Constituent Convention. It is not clear how many of those who have abstained will vote in the upcoming election and for whom they will vote.
Kast openly vindicates Pinochet -therefore, the dictatorship-, Trump and Bolsonaro. He represents, therefore, the Chilean, Latin American and international extreme right.
Boric has a democratic, ecological, feminist program, of political decentralization towards the regions. He is supported by Latin American left-wing leaders, among them Lula and Alberto Fernandez.
One clearly represents the long democratic traditions of Chile. The other embodies the old and the new Chilean right, with extreme right-wing positions.
That is the decision that Chile will make next Sunday. Two candidates and two radically opposed currents facing each other.
If Boric wins, Chile will join the current group of progressive and anti-neoliberal Latin American governments. If Kast wins, Chile will live isolated in a Latin American environment that is going in the opposite direction to the extreme right.
Chile is once again between democracy and dictatorship.
Source: Pagina 12, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English