Chile’s presidential race enters the home stretch amid a ‘dirty campaign’ accusation

Voters will choose on Sunday between left-wing candidate Gabriel Boric and far-right José Antonio Kast, who won the first round of Chile’s presidential elections. Over the past month, Kast has stepped up his personal attacks on Boric in an attempt to win the race, but the outcome remains highly uncertain.

“To clarify the doubts of the far-right candidate, I leave the results of my drug test. Enough of the lies.” Boric tweeted this message on December 14 along with a document that shows the tests carried out in early November by a Santiago laboratory indicating that no cannabis, cocaine or amphetamines were detected in his bloodstream.

The day before, Boric had presented this same document during a televised debate with his rival Kast when both men were questioned about their measures in the fight against drug trafficking. Kast said he regretted that Boric had not agreed to take a drug test.

It is in the context of this smear campaign that Chileans will vote for their next president on Sunday. Kast’s attacks prompted Boric, 35, to condemn the “dirty campaign” of his far-right opponent, which has been punctuated by numerous rumors of fake news that collapsed under the scrutiny of journalists.

Kast, a 55-year-old lawyer who has won four terms as a member of parliament, had already attacked Boric in an earlier debate by referring to a complaint of assault filed by a young woman, before apologizing the next day for the term used and stating that he was in fact referring to a case of harassment. The victim later said that she had received an apology from Boric for “macho attitudes” and complained that Kast was exploiting her.

Pinochet Defense

“Kast has led a somewhat dirty campaign to discredit Boric, attacking Boric’s personality more than his political agenda. This is a very new approach for Chile,” said Pamela Figueroa Rubio, political scientist at the University of Santiago de Chile (USACH ). talking to FRANCE 24.

Kast’s supporters have taken it upon themselves to share these attacks as much as possible in an attempt to undermine their left-wing opponent, who has tried to respond by being as transparent as possible. Boric had already taken that approach when he was a deputy in 2018, publicly confessing to a stay in a psychiatric hospital to treat obsessive compulsive disorder. Since then, his detractors have liked to say that he suffers from bipolar disorder.

In addition to these ad hominem attacks, Kast has made numerous false statements, such as denying having criticized the “gay dictatorship” in Chile. The media soon republished a tweet from 2017 in which Kast, who opposed the legalization of gay marriage, published a photo of the presidential palace of La Moneda illuminated in the colors of the rainbow, accompanied by a caption in the one that stood out that audience. the institutions belong to all Chileans and not to minorities. Marriage equality finally became law in Chile this month.

The clear winner of the first round of the elections, Kast won the support of the country’s center-right ruling class. He has shown remarkable caution in recent weeks to try to attract an even wider electorate, most obviously by toning down some very conservative positions. She has even flagged her plan to abolish women’s ministry and gender equality, a campaign promise she now describes as a “mistake.”

He is also now careful not to mention Augusto Pinochet, a man whose financial record Kast has often defended. In 2017, when he was running for the presidency for the first time, Kast said that if the former dictator, who had died ten years earlier, was still alive, Pinochet would have voted for him.

The support of former President Michelle Bachelet

However, the various clashes of the last four weeks have allowed the two men to debate their ideas, particularly on the economy, where Boric’s vision of greater state involvement in certain sectors clashes with Kast’s liberal ideas. “This presidential election marks a transition to a new political cycle because the president-elect will have to accompany the Constituent Assembly and the process of drafting a new constitution,” said Figueroa Rubio.

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In this sense, the progressive Boric seems to be well positioned. To win the second round of the elections, he has gathered key influential political supporters, including that of former Chilean president and UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet, who has called on voters to support Boric.

“This support can have an important impact on those who doubt Boric’s ability to govern,” said Figueroa Rubio, underscoring the popularity that Bachelet still enjoys after his two presidential terms. Many members of the Chilean cultural and intellectual scene are also involved in the campaign to encourage the many abstentionists in the first round to vote on Sunday and elect Boric. This last-minute mobilization could prove crucial amid so much uncertainty over which candidate will prevail.

International support for Boric

Several important international personalities such as the actors Gael García Bernal, Danny Glover and Viggo Mortensen, the philosopher Slavoj Zizek and the musician Roger Waters have called for a vote for Boric. In France, a “declaration of friendship with the Chilean people” was signed by influential personalities from the world of culture, as well as by four presidential candidates: Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Fabien Roussel, Anne Hidalgo and Yannick Jadot.