Ultra-right or communist – Chile has a choice. After years of turbulent domestic politics, there are signs of a shift to the right ahead of today’s presidential election. Security and migration are the focus of many voters.
On the Sunday shortly before the election, Jeannette Jara stepped onto the sidewalk in Catemu, a small town near Santiago, and practiced for emergencies. With all hands raised, he shouted: “So we will move to the presidential palace, all of us!”
The 51-year-old lawyer, like many in Catemu, was a working-class child, described herself as a “real daughter of Chile” and was the first in her family to be able to go to school. He has been a member of the Communist Party since his youth. He is currently running in the presidential election campaign for the left-wing Chilean alliance “Unidad por Chile” (Unity for Chile). “Growth should be there for everyone, that’s the point!”
Communist or rather social democrat? Jeannette Jara wants to fight inequality in this country.
Greater welfare and lower wages
Catemu is located in the Aconcagua Valley, among large avocado and peach groves. Apart from mining, exports of agricultural products also bring prosperity to Chile.
However, wage inequality remains high. About a quarter of employees earn just 500 euros a month, and the cost of living is only half that in Germany.
Jara, who already serves as Minister of Social Affairs and Labor, wants to offer a strong and supportive state to the middle class and low-income people. He is by no means an orthodox leftist, but rather represents a social democratic position, said his supporter, Nadia Arrelano.
Arrelano thought he had done his job well; there have been some social advances: the 40-hour week, pension adjustments and minimum wage increases. “He knows our reality,” Arrelano said.
Own Life story as a program
Jara was part of the left-wing progressive government of Gabriel Boric, who by law is no longer allowed to run for office. Boric, who began his political career in the student movement, took office in March 2022, in a turbulent time shortly after the so-called social uprisings of 2019 and 2020, whose main demand was constitutional reform.
But the constitutional process failed and with it many of the Boric government’s election promises. The atmosphere in the country has now changed, says journalist and author of a book about the period of social uprising, Patricio Fernandez.
After massive street protests and a constitutional process, the pandemic hit Chile hard and caused gridlock. This coincided with a major wave of migration unprecedented in Chile’s recent history, especially from people leaving Venezuela.
“It is also a completely uncontrolled process and is therefore considered by many to be more threatening.” It is not surprising that a candidate who presented himself as a champion of law and order is now successful.
Migration as a hot topic
The number of immigrants in Chile has almost doubled in the last seven years; nearly ten percent of its approximately 19 million residents are foreigners. According to official figures, 300,000 of them do not have legal status.
At the same time, as elsewhere in Latin America, international drug cartels have continued to spread in recent years; for the first time there were contract killings, extortion and robbery again in Chile. Despite this, Chile remains one of the safest countries in the region.
However, the feeling of risk of crime is stronger among the population than in Mexico or Colombia. Right-wing candidates benefit from this.
Election campaign with fear
“The lives of millions of Chileans are at stake, says a campaign ad by José Antonio Kast. Any of you could become a victim of an attack that ends in your death.”
Kast is currently considered the most promising of the three right-wing candidates. The reasons are explained by writer Felipe González Mac-Conell, who examines the political life of German-born Kast in a book.
Linking security crises to migration while expressing critical support for the armed forces has always been his policy. And now that the public is interested in this issue, he is taking advantage of it.
José Antonio Kast failed in the second round of presidential elections in 2022 – this year he could become the new head of state.
Trump as a role model
The 59-year-old lawyer and father of nine is the son of a Wehrmacht soldier, who is running for the third time and has previously boasted that the late military dictator Augusto Pinochet would have voted for him if he were still alive.
Although he refrained from doing so, he founded the Republican Party, which described itself as “the real right”, according to Mac-Conell: “They said: We are the bold right, everyone else is the cowardly right, which has ignored the constitution, which has ignored public order, which dare not represent conservative values.”
His current role model: US President Donald Trump. Kast called for illegal migrants to be deported, borders to be closed and prisons to be expanded. “This is what we need,” said Carolina Galdames, a janitor from Santiago whose son was killed in the robbery. “Given the current situation of the country, I will vote for Kast. He will take care of security issues. He will also crack down on illegal immigration harshly.”
Current polls show: Right-wing candidate Kast will contest the second round of elections in December along with communist Jara. Currently, 60 percent of voters will choose a candidate from the right wing.
