Presidential election in Chile

Kast's victory paves the way for a sharp rightward shift in Chile

Ultraconservative José Antonio Kast's victory in Sunday's presidential election means that Chile will have its most right-wing government since the country returned to democracy 35 years ago, writes AP.

Kast received 58.2 percent of the vote while his opponent, the communist Jeannette Jara, received 41.8 percent. AP describes the margin of victory as "astonishing".

Kast himself said in his victory speech that the numbers give him a "broad mandate" that also comes with "an enormous responsibility".

- Chile needs order - order on the streets, in the state and in the priorities that have been lost, he said.

Kast has campaigned for mass deportations and promised to crush the country's crime rate, among other things.

Clear right-wing victory in Chile – Jara has congratulated Kast

Right-wing candidate Jose Antonio Kast wins the presidential election in Chile, reports Reuters. With more than half of the votes counted, the ultra-conservative politician has just over 59 percent support, compared to communist Jeannette Jara’s just over 40 percent.

Late on Sunday evening, Swedish time, Jeannette Jara admitted that Kast had drawn the longest straw and congratulated him on his victory. The result means the clearest rightward shift in the country since the military dictatorship that ruled until 1990.

The election was painted in advance as a fight between the extremes of the political spectrum, and Kast was the early favorite. He has campaigned for mass deportations and for criminals to be combatted by deploying the military in crime-ridden areas.

Analysis: “Victory Tests Chile’s Stability”

For the first time since the return of democracy to Chile in 1990, the right-wing bloc has the largest minority in both houses of Congress. This is what CNN Español writer Gonzalo Zegarra states in an analysis after ultraconservative José Antonio Kast won over communist Jeannette Jara by a margin of over 16 percentage points.

Zegarra notes that Chilean presidential elections usually end in a change of power – but this change is more abrupt than ever. Kast takes over from Gabriel Boric, who leads the left-wing coalition Frente Amplio.

“This time the pendulum has swung again with the victory of a candidate who defends Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship,” writes Zegarra.

Rocío Montes writes in El País that Kast’s victory not only reinforces the conservative shift in Chile, but also in Latin America.

Montes also addresses the big difference between Boric’s and Kast’s policies, which she believes are putting Chile’s institutional stability to the test.

“In a way that it is unclear how drastic the political measures that the ultra-right-wing politician wants to implement are,” she writes.