Progressive candidate Jeannette Jara wins the first round of the Chilean presidential elections with 52% counted; closely followed by the far-right candidate José Antonio Kast. Jara, with 26.6% of the votes, has just over two points ahead of Kast (24.2%).
As the polls predicted, Jara wins the race, but without enough votes to avoid a second round, in which he will face Kast, leader of the more traditional extreme right, on December 14. In third place is Franco Parisi, a right-wing populist, with 19%, whose votes will be of great importance for the second round. The president, Gabriel Boric, congratulated both candidates and wished them both luck.
Johannes Kaiser, who heads the most radical sector of the extreme right and threatened Kast for second place in the polls, is in fourth position (13.9%); and Evelyn Matthei, conservative, occupies fifth position with 13%. However, their voters will be decisive in the election of Chile’s next president and both have publicly expressed their support for Kast in next month’s runoff. Adding his percentages to that of Kast, the far-right would exceed 50%.
Jara leads an unprecedented coalition of progressive forces, the largest in Chilean history. For the first time, a communist activist prevails in the first round of the presidential elections, which means, to a certain extent, a victory for her party in a country where anti-communism is visible and current. The presidential candidate has indicated that, if elected, she will “suspend or resign” from the party as a sign that she represents “a much broader coalition.”
Former minister of President Gabriel Boric, 51 years old and a historical communist militant, Jara proposes, among other measures, strengthening the control of firearms and lifting banking secrecy to follow the route of organized crime. To reduce “the cost of living”, it proposes the so-called “living wage” of 750,000 pesos (about 695 euros), one of its star proposals, with gradual increases in the minimum wage (today at 529,000 pesos) and direct transfers to workers; and a “mortgage”, aimed at young people up to 40 years old to qualify for a first home.
Kast, again for La Moneda
Kast, who is trying for the third time to reach La Moneda, faces the opposite scenario to that of four years ago, when he won the first presidential round, but lost the face-to-face match against Boric. It was the first time in Chile that whoever won the first call did not become president.
The former congressman, 59 years old and leader of the Republican Party, proposes a controversial tax cut of 6,000 million dollars in a year and a half, although despite questions from the press he has not detailed the formula to achieve it. He also wants to install maximum security and isolation prisons for drug leaders, toughen penalties for members of organized crime and finance some 2,000 flights to deport migrants in an irregular situation to their countries of origin.
It was the first time since the return to democracy that two competitive far-right candidates had a chance of going to the second round. The alliance of the two ultras and the traditional right, added to part of the votes of the other four candidates (out of a total of eight), will be fundamental in next month’s duel, experts agree. The surprise regarding the polls came from Parisi, who repeats the scenario of 2021, when he also came third and displaced the traditional right for the first time.
Starting this Monday, a new electoral campaign period opens (propaganda will begin 15 days before) for both Jara and Kast to relaunch their respective candidacies for the second round, which is expected to be very polarized. Since 2006, no president has been replaced by a successor of the same political line and power has swung between the center-left (or left in the case of Boric) and the right, like a pendulum.
More than 15.6 million people were called this Sunday to elect Boric’s successor, who cannot run for re-election and will hand over command in March 2026. These were the first presidential elections with mandatory voting.
