It is a real triumph. On Sunday, Gabriel Boric won the second round of the presidential election in Chile with 55.87% of the vote (according to the almost final results) against 44.13% for José Antonio Kast, an admirer of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet supported by the whole of the Chilean right. This victory is a success for the left coalition in this unprecedented duel since the return to democracy in 1990 between two candidates with diametrically opposed social projects.
A historic participation
Gabriel Boric, 35, becomes Chile’s youngest president and is among the youngest leaders in the world. “I am happy because there are going to be a lot of changes that will help the people and the working class, the forgotten,” Luis Astorga, 58, a construction worker who took to the streets of Santiago told AFP. celebrate victory. More than a million votes separate the two contenders (4.6 against 3.6). Turnout exceeds 55%, a historic score since 2012, when voting is no longer compulsory. In the 1st round, the turnout was 47%, when José Antonio Kast came out on top (27.9% against 25.8%), repeating that he was the candidate for “order, justice and justice. security”.
Reduce inequalities
“Boric has succeeded in mobilizing the most difficult segment to bring together: young people,” political scientist Claudia Heiss told AFP. It is with his welfare state project, a change of scale in the country, considered as the laboratory of liberalism in Latin America, that Gabriel Boric wins by rallying around him the middle and upper middle class, mainly in Santiago.
Gabriel Boric intends to promote a major tax reform to involve the richest in his program of better access to health, education and the creation of a new retirement system, now entirely private. Chile is the most unequal country in the OECD. The new leader promised the tens of thousands of supporters gathered to listen to him in the center of Santiago “more social rights” “while remaining fiscally responsible”.
“I cry with joy”
A compact and laughing crowd invaded the streets of the capital on Sunday, waving Chilean flags, as the return of a certain form of “Pinochetism” was feared by the population. “It’s a struggle that has been going on for many years, from our parents and grandparents, and we continue to fight against whatever Kast means in Chile,” says Daniela, a 27-year-old waitress. “It is we, the young people, who have to get things done. I have faith in him, I believe in what he says”. Jennie Enriquez, 45, a pharmacy worker, shares the same emotion. “I’m crying with joy. We beat fascism, it was like a birth. I’m going to come home, I’m going to hug my children and have a beer.”
Congratulations from all sides
Outgoing President Sebastian Piñera congratulated in a video chat the newly elected head of state who will officially take office on March 11. “History has taught us that when we divide into fratricidal wars, things always end badly. All of Chile hopes (…) that there will be a very good government for Chile and the Chileans,” said Mr. Piñera to the elected president. Before him, José Antonio Kast had congratulated his opponent: “He deserves all our respect, many Chileans have trusted him,” he said after admitting his defeat on his official Twitter account.
From Cuba to Argentina, via Mexico, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Peru, leftist governments in Latin America have expressed their satisfaction at Mr. Boric’s victory. Former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Workers’ Party, left), whom polls show as the winner of the presidential election in 2022 in a possible duel with far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, said he was “happy of a new victory for a democratic and progressive candidate in our Latin America, for the construction of a better future for all “.