Critics and without leaders, young people opt for the “lesser evil” in the face of presidential elections in Chile

“Even if it is for the lesser evil,” says Mathias resigned while promoting the vote among young people for the leftist deputy Gabriel Boric. Others, also with qualms, mobilize for the far-right lawyer Jose Antonio Kast. Whoever attracts young people can win the presidency of Chile

Those under 29 years of age were a significant part of the 53% of voters who abstained in the first round of November 21, and together with women, they can tip the balance either way, as the undecided navigate general disenchantment with politicians and rage for an unequal country.

“We have been marginalized throughout all these years. I think we young people are disappointed, ”Mathias Matta, a 25-year-old photographer in Villa San Miguel, a working-class neighborhood in the south of Santiago, told AFP, who did not vote in the first round but will vote this Sunday. .

Complaints against the economic model and disgust with political parties are heard among young people who have just turned 18 in a social housing complex, as well as among the elderly and adults who reproach not having obtained social welfare and better opportunities in the years of Chilean bonanza (1995-2010).

“I cannot stay without voting,” because it is “a crucial moment, with two candidates who are at the extremes,” says Matta, who will vote for Boric.

In almost the same words, Florencia Moraga, a 19-year-old political science student, argues to AFP why she will vote for Kast.

In addition to their 20-year difference, the two candidates are separated by two antagonistic views of the state.

Boric, 35, with a law degree from the University of Chile, comes from the southern tip of Punta Arenas; he is agnostic, single and childless. Kast, 55, is a lawyer from the Catholic University, has been married to María Pía Adriasola since 1991, has nine children and belongs to the Schönstatt Catholic movement.

In the popular communes of the Metropolitan Region -the most populated in the country-, some 2.5 million voters did not vote in the first round. In Chile there are 15 million citizens eligible to vote. “That’s where the mother of the lamb is,” warns economist Marta Lagos, founder of Latinobarómetro.

In the constitutional plebiscite of October 2020, young people went to the polls and shifted the balance towards the drafting of a new Constitution. But in the rest of the elections that have followed – of Constituents, mayors or presidential primaries – their interest in voting disappeared.

– Causes and people –

“Young people vote more for causes and people” and not for parties or ideologies, Claudio Fuentes, academic of Political Science at the Diego Portales University, told AFP.

“They are mobilized by causes such as the environment, human rights,” said Fuentes, revealing that more than a decade ago there has been a high abstention of those under 30 years of age in Chile, where since 2012 the vote has been voluntary.

Social inequality, climate change, inclusion of minorities and gender equality are issues that mobilize voters of Kast and Boric, albeit with antagonistic views.

Florencia Moraga does not hesitate in her vote for Kast, the most conservative candidate in the last 31 years of democracy, and admits that, although she does not like his position against homosexual marriage, she believes that he is “capable of respecting the institutionality”.

“For me it is not an issue what people do in their private lives,” clarifies this student, who was released as a voter in the 2020 plebiscite.

– Cross fears –

With little affinity to any political party, the young people consulted in various sectors of Santiago are mobilized above all by the desire “that the other should not win for anything”, be it Boric or Kast.

“It has been difficult for me to decide because it is very difficult for me to feel represented by the political world,” says Florencia Calvo, 22, a civil engineering student at the Catholic University. Identified as “very liberal”, in the first round she voted for the moderate right candidate Sebastián Sichel.

“I did not want to vote for any of the extremes that do not represent me. Those extremes for me were definitely Kast and Boric. Now it’s not the same fear that Boric comes out as Kast wins ”.

Calvo believes that the only option for the second round “is Boric”, although some of his positions do not convince her: “I think he has been gaining more support from the center, which in the end is what we need.”

Diego Lacroix, a 33-year-old physical education teacher, did not go to vote in the first round, like his friend Matta, “but this Sunday we are going without fail,” he says in a community where Boric is asked to vote.

“He was not the candidate that one would have wanted, but the other is too important a setback,” he adds.