The verdict is the one expected: on December 19, Josè Antonio Kast and Gabriel Boric will compete in the ballot for the election of the president of the republic. When 93.86% of the ballots were scrutinized, the ultra-right candidate José Antonio Kast leads with 27.99% of the vote ahead of the leftist candidate, Gabriel Boric who obtained the (25.67%. Another five candidates follow with much lower results and the succession to outgoing president Sebastian Piñera will therefore be resolved in the ballot on 19 December.
Chile to vote for the presidential elections: the leader of the new left against the nostalgic far right of Pinochet
by Daniele Mastrogiacomo
The extreme division of the electorate and the profound distance between the two main fronts of the dispute prompted President Sebastian Pinera to make a heartfelt appeal to the two contenders: “I want to ask you from the bottom of your heart to seek the ways of peace and non-violence. – said the president of Chile, commenting on the results of the first round -, of responsibility and not of populism, of moderation and not of polarization “.
Greeting supporters, Kast reiterated his hard line, proposing himself as the standard-bearer of a model of Chile “enemy of the corruption of drug trafficking and violence”. If I am elected president, he assured, “there will be a quiet and safe country, with a state at a minimum and lower taxes, a guarantor of freedom and democracy, free from communism”. Because, he emphasized, “we don’t want to be Cuba or Venezuela”. In his speech, the leader of the Partido Republicano did not hesitate to attack his challenger, accusing him of having plans to “indulge the criminals”.
Speaking at his headquarters, Gabriel Boric said instead that “the voters have given us a tremendous task: to lead a challenge for freedom and democracy”. Alluding to the fact that never in the history of the presidential ballot in Chile a candidate who started second has managed to enter the Moneda, the candidate of “Apruebo Dignidad” stressed that “it is not the first time that we have started from behind”, and “we have successfully done in the social battles of recent years “. From tomorrow, he concluded, “we will start with a great crusade for a hope that defeats fear, communicating to all the undecided that by voting for us they will choose a different and fairer Chile”.
.