Chile Elections 2021: The candidate who never set foot in Chile and was third can define the fight between Kast and Boric

The candidate’s campaign Franco Parisi it has shown that in electoral matters nothing is set in stone. He ran for the presidency of Chile and, even though he never set foot in the country – he lives in self-exile in the United States – he ranked third in last Sunday’s elections, bordering 13% of popular support.

That he resides abroad is not the only thing that draws attention to the result. A part of the electorate did not seem to care that it weighed on him a rooting order -for not complying with the alimony for their children- and there are allegations of sexual harassment.

How is it that Parisi came to ingratiate himself with 13% of the Chilean electorate? What does he represent for those who voted for him?

And, furthermore, in the second round – which will take place on Sunday, December 19 – where will your votes go? Will that 13% support the ultraconservative Jose Antonio Kast or to the leftist Gabriel Boric?

To answer those questions, we consulted Stephanie Alenda, sociologist and Research Director of the Faculty of Education and Social Sciences of the Andrés Bello University.

Mistrust weighed more

This is not the first time Franco Parisi reaches two figures. In 2013, when he also tried to reach The coin, obtained 10% of the votes.

What did you do now to become an option for the Chilean electorate?

The question is valid if several factors are taken into account.

Parisi (Santiago de Chile, 1967) studied at the National Institute -a college that boasts of having trained important figures in politics- and then studied Business Engineering at the University of Chile and a postgraduate degree in management at the University of Georgia.

He had a television show (“The Parisi”) And, at the time, the current president Sebastian Piñera He named “Counselor of the Chilean Copper Commission”.

That CV was stained when, in 2013, it was learned that, and that year, a significant equity imbalance came to light.

An accusation also came to light from when he worked at Texas Tech University: .

Did 13% of voters forget all this?

According Stephanie AlendaIt is not that they did not evaluate the accusations against Parisi, but that their distrust of the traditional media outweighs much more.

“Recently, the profile of his voters was published. There it was shown that they are people of a relatively low middle class, with a medium educational level, but what is most striking is the important access to the internet”.

“66% have access at home, 82% participate in WhatsApp and 80% in Facebook. The fact is that social networks give the feeling that you can go directly to the candidate, without intermediaries, jumping to the traditional means of communication, and he built his political capital in that way”.

If to that it is added that he “used to occupy populist discursive resources, appealing to the people and a kind of direct representation“Which omitted”the intermediation of representative democracy”, Parisi ended up consolidating.

It is not free for your electoral coalition to be named People’s Party and that it organizes conferences for entrepreneurs, so that it is “always linked to a message from the ‘self made man’”.

“On Chile there is a traditional anti-system, anti-political vote. Therefore, people try to channel their discomforts and demands through candidates who inspire confidence or who pose an immediate response to their most specific problems.”.

Social networks, a key piece

Parisi I had announced that I would go to Chile for the most important presidential debate, but he canceled his participation for work and proposed to do it online. The authorities, however, denied him the initiative.

In response, he tweeted: “If they deny us democracy, we go for it”. And he organized a parallel debate on his social networks in which he answered the same questions that they asked the rest of the locks who had physically presented themselves.

Alenda comments: “Deep down, this parallel debate embodies this traditional anti-political dimension very well.”.

And, a few weeks ago, in a masterful move, he accused his absence in the elections on Sunday 21 to the contagion of coronavirus.

Through a video posted on social networks days before the elections, he gave details:

“I already knew how the hand was coming from the rapid test, and the PCR showed positive, unfortunately. […] We are calm, isolated from the family. It was a good decision not to have traveled”.

Because if there is something that differentiated Parisi from the majority of candidates,. Although it was his only recourse, living for three years in Alabama, United States, it seems that it worked.

The newscast “Teletrece” tells it like this:

“The economist has remained in force as a political option thanks to his enormous and constant online presence, where he has maintained close contact with his followers”.

This coincides with the profile of its voters, which Alenda mentioned earlier.

Why did the message of Parisi in that sector? In addition to the populist anti-establishment discourse, sHis listeners are part of the sectors that benefit the least from the system.

Alenda maintains: “If you look at it, most of them, 90%, are in the public health system. It is a vote as a result of this market economy that did not pay off for all”.

“A third of this group are young people, the vast majority of whom declare themselves without a political position. Now in terms of their tilt, they would appear to be leaning much more to the right of Jose Antonio Kast, which to the left represents Gabriel Boric, with whom they probably do not feel identified”.

Although, of course, in this regard, Parisi he has preferred to give the impression that his voters have power. He stated:

“We are going to send the question to our adherents: Do you want to vote for candidate A, for candidate B, not vote? We believe in democracy”.

Where will the vote go?

Alenda notices four reasons that make her think that there are possibilities that the vote of Parisi go with closet. The first is, precisely, the profile of your voters: “more akin to aspirational ideas, focused on economic success“And interested in”take advantage of the system” because “feel there was not enough squirt”.

The second is the resemblance between the two candidates.

“closetDeep down, and although he has a career in politics, he also appeals to populist rhetoric, embodies the anti-elite vote or traditional politics and maintains a certain closeness thanks to social networks”.

The third is the bond of Parisi with the right.

“He always had contacts with officials more closely linked to that side than to the left. At 2019When he was away from politics, a lawyer for the military prisoners in the Punta Peuco jail sought him out to convince him to return.”.

This year, he met again with representatives of that group.

Finally, the fourth clue Alenda presents is the similarity in their political agendas.

“Apparently the success of Parisi in the north it is also due to the anti-immigration content of its program. That must be taken into account because it connects with the speech of José Antonio Kast”.

“For this reason, I believe that it is very likely that no lesser part of these votes will end up endorsed to the candidacy of Kast”.

All this, of course, will not prevent Gabriel Boric strives to get support. “To the voters of Franco Parisi, we want to talk to you […] Here’s a serious project “.

It would, however, be a fruitless attempt. The Diario Financiero portal recalls the conclusions of the investigation “Debut and dismissal. The Chilean right in the 2013 presidential elections ″ by the researcher Mauricio Morales.

There, according to the medium, it is noted that Parisi “attracted the young right-wing vote and, additionally, the group of people with high levels of education, but who belonged to the middle or poor socioeconomic segments”.

But, a month before the elections, nothing has been said.

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