The ultra-rightist José Antonio Kast won Chile’s presidential election this Sunday, defeating by a wide margin of almost 20 points the leftist Jeannette Jara, with 95.18% of the votes counted, according to figures from the Electoral Service.
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The lawyer and former ultra-Catholic deputy José Antonio Kast becomes the first Pinochet supporter since the return to democracy to reach power in Chile.
At just 22 years old, when he was a law student at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Kast campaigned in favor of the continuity of General Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) in television propaganda for the 1988 plebiscite on the continuity of the regime.
📊 Resultados preliminares Segunda Votación Presidencial. 83,43% de mesas escrutadas:
🔹J. Jara: 41,39%
🔹J. Antonio Kast: 58,61%— Servicio Electoral (@ServelChile) December 14, 2025
“If he were alive, he would vote for me,” said Kast four decades later, in 2017, in his first attempt to reach La Moneda, the seat of government.
The 59-year-old leader of the Republican Party is preparing to implement, starting next March 11, a neoliberal program of mega-cuts and a heavy hand against crime and irregular migration, after winning by a wide margin against the leftist Jeannette Jara.
The flag-bearer of President Boric Jeannette Jara already admitted her defeat against the far-righter.
“Democracy spoke loud and clear. I have just communicated with President-elect José Antonio Kast to wish him success for the sake of Chile”, said on social networks the progressive candidate who, at the head of the largest coalition in history in Chile, also thanked those who supported her candidacy.
In his current campaign, José Antonio Kast has moderated his public image, distancing himself from ultra-conservative positions on individual freedoms to attract young and female voters.
Although it claims to maintain its convictions, it focuses on security and irregular migration, proposing an “emergency government” with measures such as mass expulsions of migrants and the strengthening of border security, even though Chile maintains a low homicide rate compared to the region.
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