Who is Franco Parisi, the ghost candidate for the Presidency who gave the surprise in Chile

He has not stepped on for more than a year Chile, he campaigned for president through YouTube and Facebook and did not participate in the great television debates or campaign events while residing in Alabama, United States.

Despite this, the candidate Franco Parisi, a controversial liberal economist, was the most unexpected phenomenon of the presidential elections this Sunday in Chile by placing third, with almost 13% support, to replace the conservative Sebastian Piñera.

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His constant attacks on the “political caste” and his strong ultra-liberal and anti-corruption discourse led the candidate, who rose to fame years ago for his appearances on Chilean television, to surpass all the marks predicted by the polls and unseat the candidates of the two great coalitions.

Parisi will not go to the December 19 ballot, which will be disputed by the far-right Jose Antonio Kast and the former student leader Gabriel Boric, but its formation, the People’s Party, which was born in 2019 and was legalized in 2021, even managed to break into the Lower House as the fifth most voted force, achieving six of the 155 seats, with more than 75% voted.

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THE PHENOMENON OF ANTI-POLITICS

Under the slogan “Those who make people uncomfortable” and repudiating “the political caste”, the economist managed to place himself behind Kast and Boric without being in Chile.

He presented his proposals on YouTube through his program “Bad Boys”, which he broadcasts on the “Parisi TeVe” channel, in which he posts daily videos accompanied by other men, almost all of them young youtubers, economists, lawyers or publicists.

“Let’s talk about the truth, about how the right and the left have usurped your money and gotten richer. The bigger is the ‘papa Estado’, the smaller your pocket is ”, he affirmed in his electoral strip.

For the political scientist Jaime Abedrapo, director of the School of Government of the University of San Sebastián, its success is “a communication phenomenon” based on a strong discourse “anti-political and of repudiation of all formations, both on the left and on the right.” explained to Efe.

Franco Parisi with his girlfriend Mariela García and their children after voting during the general elections on November 17, 2013. (AFP PHOTO / CLAUDIO CRUZ).

A SIGN OF DISABILITY

It is not the first time that he has run for the Presidency. In 2013 he obtained more than 10% of the votes as an independent, although campaigning from Chile, in a conventional way.

On this occasion, he was postponing his return and just days before the closing of the campaign, on November 11, he announced that he suffered from covid-19 and that he could not be for the elections, the most crucial in the recent history of the country.

“His candidacy denotes a clear disaffection towards politics and a lack of hope in collective programs,” Claudia Heiss, head of the Political Science career at the University of Chile, told Efe.

Chilean Javier Sajuria, an academic at the Queen Mary University of London (United Kingdom), added for his part to Efe that “his anti-establishment and very populist discourse” makes him resemble the “phenomenon of the Italian Beppe Grillo’s 5-Star Movement.”

Now, both Kast and Boric have their eyes on their fraction of voters, which experts say will be crucial in deciding who will be the next president.

COMPLAINTS AND DISPUTES

The race of Parisi it has been surrounded by questions and peppered with scandals. Until recently, he claimed to be a teacher at the University of Alabama, but according to Chilean media, the educational institution denied that he had been working there since 2016.

A report from Texas Tech University, revealed on an American television network, accused him of sexual harassment against a young 19-year-old student, which would have caused her dismissal from the two universities.

The candidate denied the accusations on several occasions, although in a later interview he acknowledged being a “too loving” person.

A journalistic investigation by another Chilean outlet, Channel 13, pointed out in September that he allegedly has an arrest warrant against him since August 2020 for not paying more than 200 million pesos (about $ 260,000) in alimony to his children.

Both Parisi and his lawyer have declared on separate occasions “not to recognize that debt” and assure that the roots do not prevent the candidate from returning to the South American country.

“There is planning to go to Chile, but I cannot say when,” he said.

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