The candidate of the left bloc, Jeannette Jara (51 years old), went to the second round of the presidential elections in Chile: she obtained 26.29% this Sunday, 2% less than expected by most polls. He will break the tie in the run-off scheduled for December 14 with the radical right-wing and conservative Republican José Antonio Kast, who obtained 24.6%, and is trying to reach La Moneda for the third time.
After learning the results, Jara told his adherents in the center of Santiago, referring directly to Kast: “Don’t let fear freeze your hearts. It’s not worth it. Fear must be fought by giving families more security, not by inventing imaginary solutions that from one second to the next come up with an idea more radical than the other and in heads that have to hide behind armored glass and make them believe that someone will attack them.”
Gabriel Boric’s former Labor Minister must urgently turn towards the political center to obtain moderate votes if she wants to be competitive against the ultras. To this end, one of the gestures she could make is resigning or suspending her 37-year membership in the Communist Party (PC), which she would do, as she announced, if she were elected president. But his situation has changed: his support this Sunday did not even reach 30% of the almost incombustible support Boric had during his mandate. And it was far from the 38% that the left gave, in the plebiscite of September 2022, to the – failed – proposal of a new Constitution promoted by that sector.
After the preliminary results, with 55% of the rankings examined, but which suggest a marked trend, the Republican found himself in a more than privileged position against Jara for the second round: he already has as his basis the support of the libertarian candidate Johannes Kaiser (13.87%), even more extremist, and that of the Chile Vamos coalition, of the traditional right, represented by Evelyn Matthei, which obtained 13.7%.
But the big surprise this Sunday was the vote obtained by right-wing populist Franco Parisi, who is making his third attempt to reach La Moneda. The economist reached 18.41%, in circumstances where the polls had an average of 11%.
Thus, although Jara obtained first place, the votes of Kast, Kaiser and Matthei amounted to a total of 52.23%. And if we add the support of Parisi, who was Boric’s opponent, we arrive at 70.64%. Parisi’s vote is difficult to decipher, because there is no evidence that it can be transferred to the right.
Eight candidates ran in these elections and Jara is the only one to represent a left-wing bloc plus the Christian Democrats. Votes will have to be sought on the one hand among Matthei supporters who identify with the center and who are unable to vote for the far right. On the other hand, he could try it with those who support the independents Harold Mayne-Nicholls and Marco Enríquez-Ominami.
Jara has already made some gestures towards the electorate of these candidates: he recalled that Matthei was the victim of a smear campaign (which involved the Republicans) and he appreciated several proposals from Mayne-Nicholls (1.28%); Enríquez-Ominami (1.18%) and Eduardo Artés (0.66%).
