Gone are the alternations between the center right and the center left which have punctuated Chilean political life since the return to democracy in 1990. At the end of the first round of the presidential election, on November 21, for which only 47% of Chileans mobilized , a candidate of "the left of the left", Gabriel Boric, and a candidate of the extreme right, José Antonio Kast, will face each other in just under three weeks.

For 30 years, it is always the candidate who came first in the first round who wins in the second.

With 27.91% of the vote, the lawyer and ultra-conservative businessman José Antonio Kast therefore seems favorite.

But in an election as unpredictable as it is unpredictable, where the candidates of the traditional parties were eliminated in the first round, nothing seems to have happened.

Several polls published on Sunday predict the victory of the left-wing candidate and figure from the student movement of 2011, Gabriel Boric (25.81%), with a lead ranging from 2 to 16%!

Legislative battle over abortion and same-sex marriage

But at a time when the nostalgic candidate for the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) is trying to rally the right and the liberals, two social subjects have joined the campaign: the right to abortion and marriage homosexual.

In 2021, outgoing right-wing president Sebastian Piñera, who is not a candidate, allowed the Chilean parliament to examine two pieces of legislation on these issues which strongly polarize Chilean society.

On Tuesday, November 30, Chilean MPs rejected a bill in favor of decriminalizing abortion, resulting in a freeze on its consideration in Parliament for a year.

It provided for "a decriminalization of consented abortion (...) up to 14 weeks of pregnancy" to avoid a prison sentence of three to five years to women choosing to abort.

However, these same Chilean deputies had approved the text "in general" on September 28, allowing the opening of the debate.

Since then the text has returned to the Commission where it has been adapted to the existing law on gender identity.

It was this amended version that was rejected.

Regarding the recognition of same-sex marriage, a bill supported by the left-wing opposition obtained a majority in both chambers in July and November, despite the rejection of the right in power.

The Senate is due to vote again next week on the final adoption of a text authorizing same-sex marriage.

With José Antonio Kast, the defense of moral order 

If Gabriel Boric, 35, the candidate of the progressive left with the "Apruebo Dignidad" list which includes the Communist Party in particular, has spoken in favor of these two measures, his opponent is camped on ultra-conservative positions and wishes to question the advances made by women's rights movements and LGBT activists in recent years.

For the researcher Christophe Ventura, contacted by France 24, "these questions represent a political border between the two adversaries. The average opinion within the Chilean right is very conservative and José Antonio Kast has reinvested these subjects, believing that the current Liberal President Sebastian Piñera had yielded to social movements, which he likened to communism on his own terms. For José Antonio Kast, the government has yielded to the streets on these issues. "

Indeed, the 55-year-old lawyer, father of 9 children, is opposed to any liberalization of abortion and calls into question a text voted in 2017 which allows abortion in case of danger to the life of the mother or of child or in case of rape.

Until that date, Chile was one of the few countries in the world that did not allow abortion under any conditions.

In his program, he also indicates that he also wants to "oppose the approval of gay marriage" and wants to defend "the right of every child to have a father and a mother".

In Chile, homosexual couples can for the moment unite by a Civil Union Pact, approved in 2015, which allows to obtain the same rights as a married couple, but without the possibility of adoption and filiation. children. 

Thus, in the battle for the second round of the Chilean presidential election, José Antonio Kast resolutely embodies "a chemically pure right which reflects conservative and traditionalist views, very powerful in Chile", adds Christophe Ventura.

Chilean feminists at the forefront of the fight for social change

The ultra-conservative positions of José Antonio Kast are in opposition to the mobilization of feminist movements which, for the past fifteen years, have regularly stirred up public debate. 

In 2019, for example, a street performance titled "A Rapist on Your Way" which chanted "The oppressive state is a male rapist" toured the world. For Franck Gaudichaud, political scientist specializing in Chile and social movements in Latin America at the University of Toulouse, "the influence of the feminist movement has become a central player in what has been called the rebellion or revolt of October 2019. (…) One of the strengths of the feminist movement, which explains its massiveness, is that the demands are conceived around a common struggle, that against the precariousness of life. "

For Christophe Ventura, "the feminist movement has advanced demands that go beyond reproductive rights. It is very powerful and demands equality between men and women. In Chile, the place of women has changed, they have gained access to education, The lines have shifted which is causing great polarization, especially within the conservative bloc. "

>> To see: In Chile, the feminist struggle put to the test of the presidential election

In an interview given to France Culture, Barbara Sepuvelda, a young lawyer elected member of the Constituent Assembly and figurehead of Chilean feminists believes that "the Chilean feminist movement inspired and revitalized the social movement in 2019. (...) Our mobilizations have had an international reach and have given new strength to a movement that was strongly repressed by the state. It is a movement that carries the voice of new generations and those of other generations who have lived through different struggles. "

Chile, a country deeply shaped by conservatism

During the second round of the presidential election, on December 19, these subjects which could tip Chile to one side or the other should mobilize part of the electorate who abstained in the first round. 

"These are themes that will certainly get people to vote, but it's hard to predict which way. After all, in 2016, a lot of women voted for Donald Trump. In Chile, the lower classes abstain much more. that the middle classes and nothing says that they will not vote in favor of conservatism on the questions of companies ", affirms Christophe Ventura.

In a country that only legalized divorce in 2004, the two candidates have embarked on a frenzied race to rally undecided voters and non-voters.

During this campaign, the rights of women and homosexuals undoubtedly constitute one of the front lines on which clash those who want a return to order, and those who want to bring Chile into a new era.

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