How José Antonio Kast adds Chile to the global boom of the extreme right (and with possibilities of winning)

United States, Brazil, Spain, Hungary, France and, now, Chile. The South American country is not spared the world boom of the extreme right, which for the first time in a long time has the possibility of reaching La Moneda, the presidential seat.

The person in charge is Jose Antonio Kast, an ultra-conservative with a harsh anti-immigration discourse, whom polls place as one of the two favorites in the crucial elections next Sunday, in which the successor of Sebastián Piñera will be elected.

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In less than two months, closet It has managed to double its support to reach over 20% in voting intention and rank as the second or even the first preference in some polls, ahead of the other favorite, the leftist deputy Gabriel Boric.

Neither would be able to prevail in the first round and they would have to be measured in the December 19 ballot, but their brilliant rise polarizes vital elections in Chile, a country that has not yet recovered from the serious social crisis of 2019 and where the drafting of a new Constitution.

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Outside Chile, the supports of closet -Fan of the American Donald Trump and the Brazilian Jair Bolsonaro– They are not few: the former parliamentarian is part of the Madrid Forum, an “anti-communist” space recently created by the Vox party, the third force in the Spanish Congress, and which seeks to position itself in the region.

José Antonio Kast upon his arrival at the last televised debate of the presidential campaign. (EFE / Alberto Valdés).

THE REASONS FOR THE BOOM

His promises to dig a ditch to prevent irregular migration, at a time when the arrival of migrants through the northern border has skyrocketed, or their commitment to fight violence in the south, where there is an ingrained conflict between indigenous and foresters with constant arson attacks and fatalities, are some of the reasons for its success.

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For the head of the School of Government of the University of San Sebastián, Jaime Abedrapo, his “clear and simple” speech on security and combating violence has managed to penetrate a sector of the right in which there is a growing feeling of “uncertainty and disorder.”

On the other hand, he added to Efe, His economic proposals to cut state spending and lower taxes are attractive in certain areas of Chile, the cradle of neoliberalism in Latin America.

“Kast seeks to return to Chile the image of a country admired for its stability, its macroeconomic structure or its ability to overcome poverty, ideas that were blurred with the social crisis of 2019 ″, Abedrapo explained.

THE TWO CHILLIES

The steady progress of his candidacy contrasts with a country that chose in 2020 to change its current Constitution, inherited from the conservative dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), and that entrusted the task of writing a new one to an assembly with a progressive and diverse tendency. , joint and with indigenous participation.

According to Kenneth Bunker, director of the Tresquintos pollster, Kast speaks mainly to 20% of the population “that belongs to a nucleus that still defends the legacy of Pinochet and that, even, did not want to change the Constitution.”

José Antonio Kast holds a Cuban flag before a televised debate on TVN in Santiago, on November 15, 2021. (ESTEBAN FELIX / POOL / AFP).

Their visceral rejection of abortion or equal marriage is at the opposite extreme to the proposals of Boric cast “It has revived a sector of the right that had always been there, but now sees in it a real possibility of governing”added.

In the historic plebiscite of 1988, almost 45% of the population voted in favor of continuing the military dictatorship, Javier Sajuria, from the Queen Mary University of London, in the United Kingdom, recalled Efe.

“There are not as many Pinochetistas alive as there were then, but it is the same principle. It is that same population that is raising up what could be the first populist leader of Chile of all democracy ”, Held.

In his 2017 campaign, when he garnered nearly 8% support as an independent, Kast went so far as to say that if Pinochet were alive, the general would have voted for him.

However, in recent weeks, he has moderated his speech and recently assured that “anyone who has violated human rights” will not receive his support.

CRISIS IN OFFICIALISM

For Sajuria, unlike other candidates, Kast has taken “the good” from the right, who are his most traditional voters, and he has got rid of the “bad”: the burden of being linked to a government with low approval and a president who is being judged politically and who could be removed from office.

María Cristina Escudero, a political scientist at the University of Chile, believes that her rise is “clearly driven by the decline of the official candidate” Sebastián Sichel, a former minister who had several setbacks in the debates and has a center position that he did not “just call to the most conservative voter ”.

The disenchantment with Sichel, who according to the polls would not reach the second round, has penetrated even within the conservative government coalition itself and some leaders have already announced that they will support Kast, who for years belonged to the most traditional party of the ruling party, the Democratic Union Independent (UDI), but now going on his own.

“The political center has been emptying,” he argued to Efe Escudero, “and the scenario of uncertainty facing the country has left room for the most radical and firm options to become the most attractive.”

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