Right-wing Chilean candidate José Antonio Kast takes hold in some polls

Two of the main political polls in Chile recently pointed out that the far-right candidate, Jose Antonio Kast (Republican Party), has established itself as one of the two options with the most support for the presidential elections on November 21.

Cadem’s Public Square survey, released this Monday, indicated that Kast is consolidated as the first preference, with 23% support, 2 points more than last month.

In parallel, the Criteria poll pointed to former left-wing student leader Gabriel Boric as the winner, with 26% support, and placed the Republican in second place, with 17% support, nine percentage points more than the month. last.

The next president of Chile, who will replace the conservative Sebastián Piñera in March, will have the task of channeling a country that experienced a strong social crisis in 2019 that is still in force and of implementing, if approved, the regulations of the new Constitution.

Despite the relevance of the elections, less than half of Chileans are clear about their preference, according to the Center for Public Studies (CEP), in a country with voluntary voting and chronic abstention that in the last (regional) elections exceeded the 80%.

According to analysts, the excesses during the protests or the recent migration crisis are some of the reasons why Kast has been favored, which has disseminated a strong discourse in favor of public order and hardening borders.

The current leader of the Republican Party, a formation that has only been in existence for two years, obtained 7.9% of the votes as an independent candidate in the 2017 elections.

Although he does not define himself as far-right, his guidelines on migration or social rights have led many experts to brand him as such and associate him with leaders such as the Brazilian Jair Bolsonaro.

The rest of the polls agree that Boric, 35, head of the Frente Amplio, a renewed left-wing coalition similar to Podemos in Spain, is the one who now has the most support.

The third and fourth place varies according to each pollster between the Christian Democrat Yasna Provoste, a more traditional figure of the center-left, and the former minister Sebastián Sichel, the letter of the right-wing ruling coalition that currently governs, which started as a favorite but has been losing. accession.

Far behind are the other three candidates: Eduardo Artés, representative of a more radical left; the progressive Marco Enríquez-Ominami and Franco Parisi, a controversial liberal economist who resides in the United States.

If the victory of one of the candidates does not materialize with half plus one of the votes in the first round, the ballot would be on December 19.

In addition to facing the current social and institutional crisis, the next government will also face the economic challenge of curbing the current inflationary crisis, triggered according to experts by social aid and pension withdrawals to help families during the pandemic .