Elections in Chile: the far right wants to regain ground after social mobilizations

Audio 01:20

Jose Antonio Kast, Chilean far-right candidate for the presidential election on November 21, 2021, during a campaign rally in Valdivia, November 17, 2021. © AP - Jose Luis Saavedra

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2 min

The electoral campaign ends this Thursday, November 18 before the triple presidential, legislative and regional ballot on Sunday.

Long-awaited elections after the unprecedented social mobilizations of 2019 and the pandemic.

Among the favorites of the polls, Gabriel Boric, ex-student leader, at the head of a left-wing coalition, and the ultra-conservative José Antonio Kast, who could steal the show from the traditional right.

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With our correspondent in Santiago,

Raphaël Morán

They follow one another on a small platform installed in a green space in a town in the south of Santiago.

Local candidates and supporters of the Chilean radical right have a message: they hope to resume political terrain dominated by the demands of social justice.

We are going to bring order to this country,"

promises Maximiliano Murat, a 36-year-old lawyer who is entering politics to become a deputy.

Because today, after the social demonstrations, the small businesses which were ransacked, destroyed, burned are now in a very delicate situation.

 "

To read also: Presidential in Chile, a televised debate marked by animosity towards the favorites

"These ideologies that they want to impose on us"

In the shade of a tree, a woman sketches a few dance steps.

She is dressed in a t-shirt that carries an anti-Communist message: " 

Rather die than be a red

 ".

At his side, Juana, a pensioner waves the white, blue and red flags of the far-right party of José Antonio Kast, who poses as the heir of the dictator Augusto Pinochet.

“ 

What I fear,”

Juana confides, “

is indoctrination with these ideologies that they want to impose on us: feminism, the“ gay lobby ”, abortion and euthanasia.

 "

According to the latest polls, José Antonio Kast could qualify in the second round of the Chilean presidential election by winning many votes from voters on the right-wing government, weakened by the figure of outgoing president Sebastián Piñera.

To listen: Presidential election in Chile: what are the expectations of young people

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