A few days after Donald Trump assumed the presidency of the United States for the second time last January, Republican José Antonio Kast declared: “Our ideas have already won in the United States, in Italy, in Argentina (…) and we will win in Chile too.” The 59-year-old lawyer arrives in his third attempt to lead the South American country with the same beliefs as the global far right, but with a more moderate speech than his previous candidacies. Strategically, in this campaign he avoided issues related to individual freedoms or the defense of the legacy of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), to focus on the main concerns of Chileans: security, immigration control and the economy. Polls position him as the right’s favorite for the second round of this Sunday’s elections together with the left’s bet, the communist Jeannette Jara.
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