Chile: A young leftist takes charge
The joy is “overwhelming,” said Javier Agüero Águila in ElDesconcierto.cl (Chile). Hundreds of thousands of Chileans poured into the streets this week to celebrate the victory of Gabriel Boric in the presidential election, a “Christmas gift that promises a new Chile.” A student activist turned congressman, the 35-year-old Boric will become our country’s youngest head of state—and one of the most left-wing—when he takes office in March. Boric shot to fame in 2011 when, during the final year of his law degree, he became a leader of protests in which students took over campuses and demanded free, high-quality education for all. In the presidential election, Boric tapped into the anger that fueled nationwide antiinequality protests in 2019, promising to overhaul the free-market economic model imposed by the former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet. His ultra-conservative opponent in the election, the “proto-fascist” José Antonio Kast, spoke openly of his admiration for Pinochet and railed against women’s and gay rights. Boric defeated Kast resoundingly, winning 56 percent of the vote, largely because of the huge youth turnout. His triumph marks the end of the “dehumanizing” neoliberal system that pits Chileans against one another, scrabbling for “what is mine, mine, and only mine.”
Boric placed behind Kast in the election’s first round in November, said Eugenio Tironi in El País (Spain), and rebounded in the runoff only “thanks to a radical change in his message and his attitude.” After initially condemning former center-left presidents such as Ricardo Lagos and Michelle Bachelet as sellouts, “he went on to humbly seek their endorsement and advice.” So long as Boric listens to economic advisers and doesn’t try to move too fast, his election could be “the starting point for a new coalition” that will govern Chile for all Chileans. But can we even talk to one another after this brutally polarizing campaign? asked Joe Black in
El Mercurio (Chile). My goddaughter was shunned by her parents after announcing her support for Boric. My best friend “has been sleeping on the couch” since telling his wife he would back Kast. Chile has fragmented into blocs: northerners vs. southerners, women vs. men, the young vs. the old. “A puzzle of millions of pieces, all scrambled on the table, none of them fitting.”
Uniting them will be a struggle, said Michael Stott in the Financial Times (U.K.). Many voters agree with Boric that Chile’s model has delivered only for investors while leaving ordinary people scrambling to afford education and health care. Yet others picked him as the lesser of two evils, and business leaders at home and abroad “fear the influence of the Communist Party” in his coalition. Boric has only fueled those concerns by announcing his intention to kill the $2.5 billion Dominga copper-iron mine over environmental concerns. “Further complicating Boric’s task is a divided congress, where his Approve Dignity coalition has only a small minority of seats.” He has a mandate for change, but trying to “negotiate a path toward the green, sustainable, fairer economy many Chileans want without destroying the country’s appeal to business” will be a “formidable challenge.”