politicodiary

Polarization has swept Chile in strange ways, leaving it only two strangely different candidates to be selected towards the first-round of presidential election. Chile has seen a lot of change- from complete conservatism to now same sex marriage coming through. Speaking to a journalist who wrote a column over Chile’s crumbling political powers, Michael Shifter, president of Inter-American Dialogue, said, “In Chile, I think you see what is now the established trend in Latin America — the complete crumbling of political parties with any kind of moderate centrist option. It’s being replaced by high levels of political uncertainty and enormous fragmentation.” Between the older José Antonio Kast and the bearded millennial leader Gabriel Boric, the former seems to be winning more brownie points. Kast speaks for an anti-migrant sentiment, and has impressed the police. The culture wars propelling Kast to the presidency in Chile are similar to the themes that took Trump to the White House...

Chilean elections are the talk of the town this year. It will see a huge renewal of the whole Congress- the 155 deputies and 27 of the 50 senators. But the presidential selection is going to be a tough one as the selection looks polarized. The contrasts are stark indeed. There are surprisingly seven competitors. But none exceed the 30 percent of adherence, according to the latest polls. Only 23 percent of voters are still undecided. So electoral participation is going to be big this time and will also become the deciding factor that could tip the balance. The race looks competitive to the top seat at La Moneda. But the competition seems to be stiff only between two contenders right now. On the left, the candidate of the alliance I Approve Dignity, Gabriel Boric is supported by the Broad Front and the Communist Party. He offers a profound agenda of changes, in line with the constituent process. And on the right wing is the leader of the Republican Party, José Antonio Kast. He does n...