Can the Last President of Chile Ever Run Again or Not
A left-fly legislator who rose to prominence during anti-government protests in Republic of chile has been elected the country's next president.
With well-nigh 99 percent of polling stations reporting, Gabriel Boric won 56 percent of the votes, compared with 44 percentage for his conservative opponent, Jose Antonio Kast.
In a model of civility that broke from the polarizing rhetoric of the campaign, Kast immediately recognised defeat, tweeting a photo of himself on the phone with his opponent congratulating him on his "grand triumph".
At 35, Boric is set to become Chile'due south youngest-ever president.
Outgoing President Sebastian Pinera – a conservative billionaire – held a video conference with Boric to offer his government's total support during the 3-calendar month transition.
"I am going to be the president of all Chileans," Boric said in the brief televised advent with Pinera. "I am going to do my best to go on top of this tremendous challenge."
Two polar opposite politicians. One has won, by a huge margin. The other has lost. Within hours after the elections they sit together. All symbolic, of course, only yet and so important after the division we've seen lately in Republic of chile. pic.twitter.com/u51WyRuheN
— Boris van der Spek (@BorisvanderSpek) December twenty, 2021
Boric, who will take function in March, has tapped into public anger at Republic of chile's marketplace-oriented economic model, widely considered to take helped drive decades of rapid economical growth but stoking inequality.
That imbalance sparked widespread angry social uprisings in 2019, lighting the fuse for the political ascent of the progressive left and the redrafting of the country's dictatorship-era constitution.
Al Jazeera's Lucia Newman, reporting from the Chilean capital, said the mood in Santiago was "euphoric".
"Boric is promising to be a president for all Chileans, including those who have opposed his vision for the Chilean future," she said, "and he says he hopes he can convince them that programme, that future volition be better for everyone."
A native of Punta Arenas, in Republic of chile'southward far south, Boric every bit a student led the Federation of Students at the University of Republic of chile in Santiago. He rose to prominence leading protests in 2011 demanding improved and cheaper education.
By 2014, still in his 20s, he had joined the national Congress equally a lower-house legislator, representing Chile'southward vast and sparsely populated southernmost region of Magallanes.
On the campaign trail this year, he promised to "coffin" the neoliberal economic model left by General Augusto Pinochet'due south 1973-1990 dictatorship and raise taxes on the "super rich" to expand social services, fight inequality and boost protection of the environs.
In downtown Santiago, his supporters cheered, embraced and waved flags with Boric's paradigm, equally well equally rainbow flags of LGBT groups that have backed his socially inclusive policies equally well as plans to overhaul Chile's market place-orientated economic model.
"We did it!" 39-year-old Paola Fernandez said tearfully equally she hugged her daughter, calculation she was happy because of Boric's progressive policies.
'Historic turnout'
Kast, who has a history of defending Republic of chile's past military machine dictatorship, finished ahead of Boric by two points in the first round of voting terminal month just failed to secure a majority of votes. That set up a head-to-caput runoff against Boric.
Boric was able to reverse the difference by a wider margin than pre-election opinion polls forecast by expanding beyond his base in the capital, Santiago, and attracting voters in rural areas who don't side with political extremes. For example, in the northern region of Antofagasta, where he finished 3rd in the first circular of voting, he trounced Kast by nearly twenty points.
An additional 1.2 1000000 Chileans bandage ballots Sunday compared with the first circular, raising turnout to nearly 56 percent, the highest since voting stopped being mandatory in 2012.
"It'due south impossible not to be impressed by the historic turnout, the willingness of Kast to concede and congratulate his opponent even before final results were in, and the generous words of President Pinera," said Cynthia Arnson, head of the Latin America program at the Wilson Center in Washington. "Chilean democracy won today, for sure."
Kast, 55, a devout Roman Catholic and male parent of 9, emerged from the far-right fringe subsequently having won less than 8 per centum of the vote in 2017. An gentleman of Brazil'southward far-correct President Jair Bolsonaro, he rose steadily in the polls this time with a divisive discourse emphasizing conservative family unit values and playing on Chileans' fears that a surge in migration — from Haiti and Venezuela — is driving crime.
Equally a legislator, he has a tape of attacking Chile'south LGBTQ community and advocating more restrictive abortion laws. He also accused approachable President Sebastian Pinera, a young man conservative, of betraying the economic legacy of General Augusto Pinochet, the country's erstwhile war machine leader. Kast'southward brother, Miguel, was ane of Pinochet'southward meridian advisers.
Al Jazeera's Alessandro Rampietti, reporting from Kast's campaign headquarters in Santiago, said the conservative legislator has been "very generous in his concession".
"He met Gabriel Boric, recognizing his victory, proverb that everyone needs to respect the voice of the majority of the Chileans that decided to vote in favour of Boric," said Rampietti.
"This has been a very polarized election. It comes now after years of frequently trigger-happy protests in the country. It was the first time in iii decades that two candidates who offered such a starkly dissimilar view of the time to come of the country confronted each other, in a country that is known for its stability of its politics and its economic views."
Analysts say Boric'due south victory is likely to be tempered by a divided Congress.
Boris Van Der Spek, editor-in-chief of Chile Today, said he expected to see a standoff between the right and the left in Chile.
"The fact that Kast has lost does non hateful he'due south completely gone from the political stage. The fact is his right fly party has gained a tremendous presence in the parliamentary elections, his front has 50 seats in the parliament. And likewise in the Senate, they are a force to reckon with. And while Kast lost the ballot, turnout was and so loftier that he became the sixth-most voted for candidate in Chile," Van Der Spek told Al Jazeera.
"Boric will have to seek dialogue with the right fly opposition every bit of March to be able to complete his political programme, and it is unlikely that he will be able to fulfill his entire programme. It is too ambitious and his leftist plan will exist a moderate one in the end."
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/12/20/gabriel-boric-wins-chiles-presidential-election
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