21 de diciembre 2021
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The young left-wing deputy Gabriel Boric, candidate of the Frente Amplio (Broad Front) coalition, won the Presidency of Chile this Sunday by obtaining 56% of the votes with 99% of the polls scrutinized.
“I will be the president of all Chileans, I will not govern only between four walls,” Boric said during a televised phone call with the outgoing president, the conservative Sebastián Piñera.
His opponent, far-right lawyer José Antonio Kast, obtained 44% of the votes, one of the largest differences in an election in Chile’s recent history.
Kast, who prevailed in the first round of November 21 with only 2 points of advantage, recognized with just over half of the polling stations reporting the victory of the former student leader, who will become the youngest Chilean president in March 2022.
“I just spoke with Gabriel Boric, and I have congratulated him on his great triumph. From today on he is the president-elect of Chile, and he deserves all our respect and constructive collaboration. Chile is always first,” Kast wrote on his Twitter account.
A 35-year-old MP and former student leader, Boric defines himself as an ecologist, feminist and regionalist and wants to expand the role of the state towards a welfare model like that of Europe.
He will be the most leftist president since the government of the overthrown Salvador Allende (1970-1973) and the first that is not part of the two great center-left and center-right blocs that shared power since the return to democracy in 1990.
Outside the hotel where the team of the virtual president-elect were meeting, university student Barbara Gomes told EFE: “I am happy because I have been in Plaza Dignidad (Dignity Square) since October 18 (the day the wave of protests broke out in 2019) and I was very afraid of the extreme right. I’m happy because democracy won.”
The same joy showed on the face of Ignacio Valdes, 34, who was headed for the celebration. “Chile has said no to fascism,” he assured EFE.
The young left-wing deputy Gabriel Boric, candidate of the Frente Amplio (Broad Front) coalition, won the Presidency of Chile this Sunday by obtaining 56% of the votes with 99% of the polls scrutinized.
“I will be the president of all Chileans, I will not govern only between four walls,” Boric said during a televised phone call with the outgoing president, the conservative Sebastián Piñera.
His opponent, far-right lawyer José Antonio Kast, obtained 44% of the votes, one of the largest differences in an election in Chile’s recent history.
Kast, who prevailed in the first round of November 21 with only 2 points of advantage, recognized with just over half of the polling stations reporting the victory of the former student leader, who will become the youngest Chilean president in March 2022.
“I just spoke with Gabriel Boric, and I have congratulated him on his great triumph. From today on he is the president-elect of Chile, and he deserves all our respect and constructive collaboration. Chile is always first,” Kast wrote on his Twitter account.
A 35-year-old MP and former student leader, Boric defines himself as an ecologist, feminist and regionalist and wants to expand the role of the state towards a welfare model like that of Europe.
He will be the most leftist president since the government of the overthrown Salvador Allende (1970-1973) and the first that is not part of the two great center-left and center-right blocs that shared power since the return to democracy in 1990.
Outside the hotel where the team of the virtual president-elect were meeting, university student Barbara Gomes told EFE: “I am happy because I have been in Plaza Dignidad (Dignity Square) since October 18 (the day the wave of protests broke out in 2019) and I was very afraid of the extreme right. I’m happy because democracy won.”
The same joy showed on the face of Ignacio Valdes, 34, who was headed for the celebration. “Chile has said no to fascism,” he assured EFE.
This article was originally published in Spanish in Confidencial and translated by Havana Times
