The Guardian view on Chile’s new president: Boric brings a fresh start
The relief is immense. But so is the challenge that lies ahead. Gabriel Boric’s sweeping victory over his farright opponent José Antonio Kast in Chile’s presidential election on Sunday was welcome to all those alarmed at the prospect of a leaderwho admires the country’s late dictator Augusto Pinochet and embraces Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro. Polls had predicted that Mr Boric would win modestly in the second round; instead, with a 12 percentage point lead on a high turnout – giving him more votes than any president in history – he has a resounding mandate. Now Chile’s youngest ever president-elect, just 35, must attempt to push through his ambitious pledges of sweeping reform – including abolishing the private pension system, raising taxes, increasing the minimum wage and forgiving student debt – in a polarised nation.
Undoubtedly, many were driven to support him by the prospect of a Kast presidency, with potential echoes of both Pinochet and Trump. Mr Kast, the son of a Nazi, railed against migrants and the “gay lobby” and said he would ban abortion (already extremely tightly restricted). But the deeper roots of Mr Boric’s success lie in the explosion of protest in 2019 over the cost of living, inadequate welfare and public services in one of the world’s most unequal countries; 1% of the population owns 25% of its wealth, according to the UN. While foreign investors have long hailed Chile as a success story, more than half of households are classed as economically vulnerable. Many have had enough of free-market dogma.
Though detractors warn that Mr Boric is inexperienced, others are hungry for a new start.
Mr Boric is the most leftwing leader since Salvador Allende was overthrown by the 1973 coup, and was drawn into politics as a student protester, but he is hardly a firebrand. He positions himself in the European social democratic tradition. He is of a new generation: a feminist and environmentalist who wants better mental health services and who says he has obsessive compulsive disorder. He proclaimed that “if Chile was the cradle of neoliberalism, it will also be its grave”, but also moderated his message over the campaign and reached out to the centrist left. Following his victory, he has pledged to unite the country.
His victory has buoyed those who see a swing to the left in Latin America – including Brazil’s former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, hoping for his own comeback next year. But while some hope the devastation that the pandemic has wrought in the US and Brazil has shown the perils of rightwing populists such as Donald Trump and Mr Bolsonaro, there is still plenty of power on the right.
Mr Kast was unexpectedly swift and gracious in conceding the election. But the peso fell to a historic low against the dollar on news of Mr Boric’s win, and stocks plunged 10%, reflecting the business class’s fear that a system which has cherished their interests over those of ordinary Chileans is about to change. The right are also anxious about the rewriting of the Pinochet-era constitution.
Mr Boric must now attempt to enact his agenda in a split legislature and to satisfy both his base and those he has more recently won over, while keeping the rightwing elite at bay. He has proved himself an adept negotiator and a pragmatic judge of political possibilities. He will never have needed those skills more.