The far-right Republican Party, which favors preserving the current Chilean constitution, won this Sunday’s constituent elections by 35.5%, gaining at least the 20 councilors needed to veto the constitutional body, with 95 .1% of the vote. counted.

In second place was the Unidad Para Chile list (28.3%), comprising the majority of the parties that are part of the official coalition (President Gabriel Boric’s Broad Front, the Communist Party and the Socialist Party), while third place went to the traditional right, united in Chile Seguro (21.2%) and that includes UDI, Renovación Nacional and Evópoli.

Far above what the polls predicted, the far right and the traditional right together hold an absolute majority, gaining more than the 30 seats needed to pass the new constitutional norms without having to agree with the left and set the course for the new Magna Carta proposal.

Founded in 2019, the Republican Party is led by José Antonio Kast, who lost to Boric in the 2021 elections and is a staunch defender of the neoliberal economic model established in Chile by the military dictatorship (1973-1990).

“May sectarianism never take over our homeland again,” said a euphoric Kast at his party’s headquarters.

“We Chileans today urgently need this government to start governing and take responsibility and be responsible for guaranteeing order, prosperity and peace for all our compatriots,” added the far right, who was a member of the conservative UDI for nearly two decades. .

The far right conquered most of Chile’s 16 regions, even taking over traditional strongholds from the left, such as the Valparaíso region or the metropolitan region, where the capital is located.

“We have a huge responsibility and we are convinced that we will not make the mistakes of the left in this process. Chile has no other chance,” said UDI delegate Juan Antonio Coloma.

final conformation

With 90.6% of the votes counted, the final distribution of the 50 councilors who will draft the new Constitution proposal is still unknown, but everything indicates that neither the center-left list Todo por Chile nor the People’s Party (populist right) will make it sufficient percentage of the vote to enter the council.

Todo por Chile received only 8.9% of the vote and consists of the pro-government Party for Democracy and Christian Democracy, which is not actually the opposition, but also not a member of the government.

Last place went to the People’s Party, which barely received 5.4% of the vote, despite being a formation that seemed to stand out in the latest polls and being hit by a drug trafficking case involving one of its candidates.

“The Republican Party did not want a new constitution. Now that they have a majority, the question is whether the traditional right will become their caoose,” said Juan Ignacio Latorre of the Broad Front.

For Claudia Heiss, from the University of Chile, the result of this Sunday is “a complete republican tsunami”.

“They have the ability to veto and in this scenario it is very likely that the constitution that emerges from this process will not be a supporting constitution. It is a guarantee of the ‘status quo’ and the strengthening of Republicans’ presidential options,” he told EFE.

The 50 directors – 25 men and 25 women – will take office on June 7 and have five months to prepare the proposed text, which will be put to a referendum on December 17.

On the same day of the installation, the directors receive a draft prepared since March by 24 experts appointed by parliament, which meets 12 basic principles agreed a priori by the parties to avoid a refounding proposal like the previous one.