On Sunday, Chile elected a far-right president. José Antonio Kast, an admirer of the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, faced off in the run-off election against Communist Party member Jeannette Jara, clinching 58 percent of the vote. This election represents a major political defeat for the reformist left government of Gabriel Boric, which caused deep demoralization among its own social base for its conciliatory approach to the Right and failure to deliver on key policies.

Unsurprisingly, capitalists and major employers immediately welcomed the election outcome, expressing their support for the president-elect and voicing their willingness to work with the new administration.

Kast’s victory comes in a context marked by the rise of the Far Right worldwide. Indeed, he has cited Italy’s far-right prime minister Giorgia Meloni as his political role model and aligns himself with ultra-reactionary governments in Latin America, like those of Javier Milei of Argentina and Daniel Noboa of Ecuador. All of these leaders are following in the footsteps of Donald Trump, who has intensified his offensive against Latin America. Recently, the U.S. president has stepped up attacks on Venezuela, which he is threatening with a ground invasion, reviving the old Monroe Doctrine that considers the continent to be Washington’s backyard.

The Failure of Boric’s “Lesser Evil” Government

It’s impossible to explain this election result without analyzing the Boric government’s record. The former left-wing student activist Boric defeated Kast in 2021 on the promise of profound social change, fighting fascism, and making Chile the “grave of neoliberalism.” However, Despite campaigning against the private pension and healthcare systems, his administration, working with the center-left Concertación coalition, revived them. It also strengthened the state’s repressive apparatus, imprisoning a historically high number of Indigenous Mapuche people and militarizing the Wallmapu region of southern Chile. On issues of security and economics, he adopted the agenda of an increasingly radicalized Right.

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Instead of strengthening independent organization from below, Boric ended up keeping the labor movement and youth in a state of profound passivity. He did this with the complicity of the union bureaucracies and reformist political parties that served as his government’s social base.

Boric’s orientation was further accentuated by Jara’s campaign. For the second round of the election, she placed historical figures from the Concertación, such as Carlos Ominami, Francisco Vidal, and Paulina Vodanovic — who are widely rejected by the majority of the population due to their record of neoliberal policies when they were in power — at the head of her team.

Jara quickly recognized the election results, calling for national unity and the continuation of cross-party agreements. She positioned herself as a “constructive and respectful” opposition, thus continuing the policy of compromise with the Right pursued by Boric.

Boric’s phone call to Kast took place an hour after the official results were announced. Boric invoked national unity: “Whether we are sad or happy today, I am very proud of democracy; Chile is consolidating in a way that should make us all proud,” he said, before offering his support to the president-elect: “We are committed to carrying out the transition to the new government, in accordance with republican values.”

In his victory speech, Kast made numerous overtures to the ”political center,” praising Jara as well as former presidents Frei, Lagos, and Bachelet. He called himself the president of “all Chileans,” as the head of a “unity government” with a sense of “urgency” to restore order and growth.

At the same time, Kast announced that 2026 would be “a tough, very tough year, because the country’s finances are in crisis,” thus paving the way for budget cuts. His program promises to worsen the living conditions of the working class and the oppressed, as evidenced by his threats against teachers and his statements about ending “ideology in universities.”

The working class, however, has the strength to confront Kast and the Far Right. The president-elect is preparing cuts in health, education, and housing. For this, he will have to confront and defeat sectors with important social weight, such as the labor and student movements. Kast is well aware of this fragile balance of power: as soon as the results were announced, he adopted a more moderate tone in order to mask his true intentions.

Against Fear and Resignation: Organizing a Response from Below

In this context, it is essential to organize resistance in places of work and study in order to brace for Kast’s coming offensives. This means learning the lessons of the four years of the Boric government, a period during which the Far Right made gains thanks to the passivity imposed by the reformist Left.

The general strikes in Italy and Portugal show that another path is possible. It is essential that the major trade union federations, such as the CUT, the main union federation, and student organizations like the CONFECH break with years of passivity and call for each attack to be met with a genuine plan of struggle.

More broadly, Chile’s organic and institutional crisis remains unresolved. The international situation is marked by growing instability: the crisis of U.S. hegemony, intensifying rivalries between the Great Powers, the global economic slowdown, the ongoing genocide in Palestine, and the war in Ukraine. These dynamics exert direct pressure on Chile, whose economy is heavily dependent on international fluctuations and Sino-American rivalry in the region. The parliament resulting from Sunday’s elections will be fragmented, with no absolute majority for any camp.

One central element of the international situation must be emphasized: the return of class struggle to the fore. Strikes in Italy, in solidarity with Palestine and against austerity, have directly confronted Meloni’s government. The strike in Portugal has created difficulties for a right-wing government. In the United States, massive mobilizations have taken place against Trump. Faced with Kast’s victory, we must push back against resignation, looking to international experiences as examples to follow.

Chile’s recent history demonstrates that the working class still has enormous power. The student mobilizations of 2011, under the Piñera government, put the demand for free education in focus and weakened the government. The massive mobilizations against Chile’s private pensions schemes have shown enormous potential, as has the feminist movement. We must learn from these struggles to build a force capable of confronting the Far Right.

Right now, it is necessary to strengthen grassroots organization, by drawing inspiration from the strikes in Europe and the struggles in Peru, Ecuador, and Asia. This means breaking with the passivity inherited from the Boric government, coordinating current struggles, and building the broadest unity around common causes, such as solidarity with Palestine or the fight for the disappeared Indigenous activist Julia Chuñil, while strengthening the student, feminist, and workers’ movements.

To this end, total political independence from the Boric government and its coalition is crucial. Neither negotiations at the top, nor parliamentary maneuvers carried out behind the backs of the masses, nor agreements with the Right and the bosses, will stop the Kast government and its attacks.

Originally published in French on December 15 in La Izquierda Diario

Translated and adapted by Otto Fors

The post Chile: How the Reformist Left Helped the Far Right Win the Presidency appeared first on Left Voice.

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