Johannes Kaiser, presidential candidate of the National Libertarian Party and congressman, ended his campaign on Wednesday with a nearly hour-long speech in which he intensified his criticism of Communist Jeannette Jara, standard-bearer of the left and Christian democracy. He opened his demonstration, in the Plaza de la Aviación, in the municipality of Providencia, asking for a minute’s silence for the “1,200 martyrs of the policemen who died defending our country, the law and the Republic” (while on Tuesday, at the end of the campaign, the public got Jara in trouble by issuing offensive chants against the police) and, once it concluded, he directly accused the candidate of the party in power: “One kilometer from here (alluding to Plaza Italia, the epicenter of protests in the social epidemic) they brought that dog that kills the pacos (policemen) that Mrs. Jara wore in a t-shirt”.
But his darts didn’t stop there. He also alluded to a phrase repeated by Jara and the government of Gabriel Boric, where they indicate that “Chile is not falling apart.” To which Kaiser responded: “This country is not falling apart, but under bullets, Mr. President.”
The 49-year-old libertarian gathered, according to his command, 12,000 people, 15% less than the 14,000 present on Tuesday at the closing of the campaign of the Republican José Antonio Kast, Kaiser’s ally until two years ago and with whom he now contests the leadership of the far right in Chile. “There are things that must not be given up and I like this about Kaiser. He has a determination that the others do not have, as he is similar to (the Argentine president Javier) Milei, and I think he will lead the right to the presidency for the first time because we must be clear: (Sebastián) Piñera was a yellow (center)”, said Germán Rosende, a 36-year-old entrepreneur, who will vote for the candidate this Sunday, November 16.
In polls released before the electoral ban, Kaiser was in third place, narrowly beating Evelyn Matthei, a candidate of the traditional right, and raising doubts about Kast’s passage to the second round.
His style distinguishes him from other right-wing candidates. This is what Ingrid Muñoz, a 51-year-old Chilean, who showed up wrapped in a Chilean flag to listen to Kaiser’s speech, caught: “In the first round of 2021 I supported Kast, but in the second round he changed course and gave up on ideas such as eliminating the Ministry of Women. The same thing happens with Matthei, who is not convincing, and this makes me wary. But Kaiser has clear and concrete ideas. I have been following him since “The pandemic and I like his ideas. And I know that if I vote for Kaiser it will be for him and that won’t change in the second round or when he becomes president.”
Like his Republican Party rival, the libertarian proposes tougher measures to reduce illegal immigration, crack down on crime and strengthen the economy. However, Kaiser’s speech and some of his proposals appear more radical than Kast’s. If the Republican omitted in his story the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) in this third candidacy, the PNL standard-bearer said without hesitation that he would support a new coup d’état like the one suffered by the socialist president Salvador Allende. While Kast wants to apply a fiscal spending cut of 6 billion dollars in 18 months, Kaiser aims for an adjustment of up to 16 billion dollars “as soon as possible,” the libertarian’s economic coordinator, Víctor Espinosa, tells EL PAÍS.
Kaiser promises that he will close the borders and expel all illegal immigrants in Chile and applause breaks out among his supporters: “Whoever entered through the window must leave through the door.” And he says he will ask the government of El Salvador, of Nayid Bukele, for help to send foreigners with police records to the Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot), a mega-prison built for gang members and recently denounced by the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) for having committed torture and humiliation. “Let them go there! We don’t want the leaders of the Venezuelan, Mexican, Chinese, Japanese and Mongolian mafias here, in our prisons, to leave their broom,” says the presidential candidate.
He arrived at his latest political event hand in hand with his wife, Ivette Avaria Vera, on a bus called 4K – four for the number assigned to him on his ballot and K for the initial of his last name – and surrounded by thousands of supporters who had been waiting for him for hours. When he goes on stage, AC/DC plays, fireworks explode, he sometimes jumps and ends his act by shouting “freedom”.
