SANTIAGO, Chile (CN) - With his victory in Chile's runoff election Sunday, Jose Antonio Kast, a conservative hardliner who campaigned on law and order, marked a turning point in the country's politics.
It was a sweeping win, with Kast taking 60% of the vote, surpassing leftist Jeanette Jara by almost 20 points.
The third time was the charm for the former lawmaker, 59, who ran and lost to incumbent Gabriel Boric in 2021's runoff. This time, however, Kast managed to capitalize on a range of emotions among Chileans, especially rising concerns around security, economy and immigration.
On March 11, he will take office as Chile's most right-wing president since the return of democracy in the '90s, joining a troupe of far-right leaders across the region who are not just changing their country's politics, but building regional alliances and transforming global geopolitics.
Critics have warned about Kast's admiration for Augusto Pinochet, the country's former dictator, a line that no other right-wing politician in the country had dared to cross since the return of democracy in the 90s. During the early stages of his political career as a student organizer, he advocated against the restoration of democracy in Chile.
Those weren't the only controversies surrounding his image and history: His father was a registered member of Adolf Hitler's Nazi party.
His defense of police conduct during the 2019 social uprising has also alarmed deterrents, who fear repression during potential protests in his government. He has promised to expand the powers of the armed forces.
"Chile needs order in the streets, in the state, in the priorities that have been lost," said Kast before the crowds in his victory speech on Sunday.
On a stage a mile and a half away, diehard supporters chanted that the "left was dead."
"We won the cultural battle," said Rodolfo Carrasco Molina, 39, a history professor, celebrating with a Chilean flag near the Santiago city center.
He said most Chileans missed the years of political growth, regardless of the dictatorship's "bad stuff."
During the dictatorship, thousands were killed or disappeared by the military after the U.S.-backed Pinochet coup murdered Salvador Allende, then president, inside the government house in 1973. For nearly two decades, the country was submerged in repression. Drastic economic changes liberalized the Chilean economy widely, overturning the socialist model that Allende had implemented.
"Chileans want to return to what we once were - a country that boomed, now stagnated due to the left," Carrasco Molina said.
Aside from law and order, Kast has promised to slash public spending by $6 billion, although it is unclear which areas would be affected. His government won't have a majority in either house of Congress, meaning that to pass his sweeping proposals he will need to negotiate and ally with other politicians.
During his speech Sunday night, he greeted other right-wing candidates in the general election, summoning them to take part in his future administration. He held a brief yet cordial conversation with Boric shortly after Jara conceded his victory, where they both agreed on a smooth transition.
Kast has promised tough-on-crime policies, strict border controls and an austerity plan. For some of his more drastic pledges, such as mass deportations, he has not provided details of how he plans to deliver.
Four years ago, Chile elected a young, progressive man who promised to fulfil the demands of the monthslong uprising that started in late 2019, only stopped by the Covid pandemic six months later. Gabriel Boric promised to push structural changes in a deeply unequal country, with a society sharply divided by the neoliberal policies that persisted after the coup.
However, the rejection of two attempts to reform the Pinochet constitution, infighting and criticism from the left and right groups meant his hopes to deliver change stagnated. Jara, a communist who was part of Boric's coalition, struggled to distance herself from the administration, falling behind Kast, who rallied with a promise for change.
"This was the worst presidential election for the left," said Damian Trivelli, a local political consultant. "But no president for the past 20 years in Chile has ceded power to one of their own movement."
Political alternance, said Trivelli, has marked Chilean democracy for the past decades.
He said he didn't think Kast's government would bring an authoritarian turn. "He comes, after all, from the traditional right," Trivelli said. "The question is whether hardliners will join his government or not."
Kast's win is not just an important turn in Chile but a relevant addition to an ongoing regional process. Argentina's Javier Milei congratulated him quickly and wrote, "the left recedes." U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio followed. "We are confident Chile will advance shared priorities," he wrote.
"This conservative swing might not last very long," said Benjamin Gedan, director of the Stimson Center Latin America program. "Voters in Latin America have a short fuse these days."
But Kast's election makes it less likely for Latin America to oppose controversial U.S. policies, "from mass deportations and trade barriers to Trump's killing spree in the Caribbean," Gedan said.
Javier Escanela, 46, a public health care worker and son of political exile victims during the dictatorship, said the results were unsurprising yet bitter. "People end up voting for the lesser of evils," he said. "Since the return to democracy, Chile feels like a vicious circle."
Lucia Cholakian Herrera is a Courthouse News correspondent covering South America. She is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Source: Courthouse News Service
