He and his opponent continue to provoke doubts and fears in various quarters.
At 35 years old, the minimum age to run, Gabriel Boric Font could become the youngest president of Chile this Sunday in a disputed second round of elections against José Antonio Kast.
The leftist candidate advocates a stronger state and guaranteed social rights after decades of orthodox liberalism. To do this, Boric proposes a tax reform that includes increasing the tax burden on the richest and ending the private pension system. It also wants to establish 40 hours of work per week (currently there are 45 in the country), promote “green development”, create 500,000 jobs for women and a national care system.
Initiated in his youth in leftist movements, Boric became a university leader becoming president of the Federation of Students of the University of Chile. The Sunday newspaper magazine The Mercury put him as one of the top 100 young leaders in 2012.
“We represent the process of change and transformation that is coming, (but) with certainty, with the gradualness that is necessary,” he promised from his native city of Punta Arenas (south), on the shores of the Strait of Magellan, where this politician dreamed of since childhood with a welfare model for your country.
Since his early years in politics, he has been one of those who support the drafting of a new Constitution.
In 2014 he entered the Chilean Congress as a deputy and since then he has remained in office.
During the 2019 social protests that put the government of Sebastián Piñera on the ropes, he became one of the legislators who supported the cause of the protesters, but he was also one of those who helped channel that uprising into a dialogue in Congress.
He has been very critical of the positions of the presidents who arrived at the Palacio de la Moneda with the Concertación line (an alliance that ran from the center to the center-left and that in recent years has blurred and lost space), especially with Ricardo Lagos and Michelle Bachelet, who did not support his desire to be president, but who, given the options left by the first round, have not hesitated to adhere – taking and asking for precautions – Boric.
The candidate, born in Punta Arenas (extreme south of Chile) and the eldest son -of three- of a family of Croatian and Spanish descent (from Catalonia exactly), participates as a representative of the Approve Dignity coalition, which brings together left-wing parties, including the Communist Party.
In his campaign for the left-wing primary election, in which he surprisingly beat Communist Party candidate Daniel Jadue, he climbed a huge cypress tree, just as he did as a child. That image became a symbol of his campaign throughout Chile, he recalls AFP.
“He was isolated there, it could be with a book to think or meditate,” says his father.
From a very young age Gabriel had a great fondness for books and also a very strong connection with Punta Arenas, a city that at the beginning of the 20th century welcomed his Croatian ancestors during a wave of European migrants who crossed the Strait of Magellan.
When he was a student at the British School, one of the most traditional in Punta Arenas, his parents say that he went out for a walk through the streets marveling at the dozens of monuments and heritage houses in this city, which also supports an inclement southern climate with strong gales exceeding 100 km / h.
In closing his campaign, Boric said that Kast “is only going to bring instability, more hatred and violence” to Chile.
“We are the heirs of those who have fought to make Chile a more just and dignified country,” he said on the same occasion.
“Our path is peace. To rediscover Chile we need social justice and not violence. There is no clearer formula for instability than leaving everything as it is, which is what José Antonio Kast ultimately proposes, “said Boric, calling his opponent the heir to Pinochetism.
“We are going to make the changes that Chile needs despite those who oppose it, because Chile has been demanding it for many years,” the candidate closed.
Antagonistic models
The one that was for decades the most stable country in Latin America will have to choose between these two candidates who bring under their arms more drastic proposals than those of the large blocks of the center-right and center-left that have shared power since the return to democracy. in 1990.
Boric points to a welfare state that he claims will be similar to the European one, with a feminist and environmentalist accent.
He is the candidate for the “profound changes” in the field of pensions, education and health, and represents the part of Chilean society that participated in the massive protests for equality in 2019, he told Efe María Cristina Escudero, political scientist at the University of Chile.
Meanwhile, Kast, a fervent Catholic and leader of the far-right Republican Party, is in favor of defending the current model with slight changes, based on a pro-business economic model installed during the military dictatorship (1973-1990).
Contrary to equal marriage, abortion and defender of digging a ditch at the border to prevent the passage of irregular migrants, Kast has declared himself a fan of Jair Bolsonaro and Donald Trump.
He is part of a family clan related to the Pinochet dictatorship and his promises of “order and security” led him to be the most voted candidate during the first round in November, with 27.9% support. (I)
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