The right-wing populist Franco Aldo Parisi Fernández (Santiago, 58 years old), militant, leader and founder of the People’s Party (PDG), was the big surprise of the presidential elections on 16 November. With 62% of the ballot boxes counted by the Electoral Service, he obtained 19.05% of the votes, occupying third position and only five points behind José Antonio Kast, of the radical right, who will compete in the second round, on 14 December, with Jeannette Jara, representative of the left. It is Parisi’s third candidacy for the presidency: in 2013 he obtained 10% and in 2021 he provided, as now, a surprise: he reached 12.8% in the first round and remained in third place, only behind Gabriel Boric – who won the presidency – and Kast.
Before the electoral ban, in force 15 days before this Sunday’s elections, no poll placed him so close to the main candidates: Jara and Kast. But Parisi, with his intervention anti-politicsousted former mayor Evelyn Matthei, of the traditional right, and the ultra Johannes Kaiser, standard-bearer of the National Libertarian Party, has grown in the last four weeks according to various measures. Ultimately Kaiser finished fourth and Matthei – in Sunday night’s biggest defeat – placed fifth.
The cornerstone of the 2021 campaign was that he did not set foot in Chile because he had a restraining order for failing to pay child support for his two children. The press nominated him as a candidate ghost, absent or the telecandidate. He returned to the country only after a court revoked that measure in 2023.
Parisi, in his recent electoral campaign, doubled down on his populist spirit. Promised events tuning –as the hobby of transforming cars is known– around the Moneda Palace, “bullet or prison for criminals”, bringing the military to the streets, putting an end to the violence in Araucanía in eight months through commando operations and refunding the value added tax on medicines, which Jara appreciated tonight.
The candidate is aiming for an apolitical and less ideological electorate. The message he repeated throughout his candidacy was that “Chile is not facho neither of them common“, that is, neither fascist nor communist. According to data from the Electoral Service, the leader of the People’s Party obtained the greatest number of votes in the north of the country, in particular in the regions of Tarapacá, Antofagasta and Atacama. There he largely surpassed Jara, who obtained the first majority at the national level.
Now, in view of the second round on December 14, it will be fundamental for Jara and Kast to win their electorate. Especially for the left-wing candidate, who is at a disadvantage compared to the ultra-conservative, installed just two points lower, when the difference would have been greater.
He is an economist, with a PhD in Finance from the University of Georgia, and has been a university professor in Chile and the United States. His fame skyrocketed after the premiere of his television show The Parisi: the power of the peoplein 2012. Equipped with great communicator skills, he connects with his followers through social networks and digital platforms. This explains, according to his supporters, why not having set foot in Chile in 2021, for example, did not hurt him.
