Chile's Presidential Primaries

CHILE - In Brief 19 Jul 2021 by Robert Funk

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Chile held presidential primaries on Sunday, with the participation of two main political agglomerations: Chile Vamos, made up of the two traditional parties of the right, National Renovation and UDI, and Apruebo Dignidad, composed of the Communist Party and the Frente Amplio (Broad Front). A bit over 3 million Chileans voted, representing a turnout of about 20%. The results were something of a surprise. Apruebo Dignidad opted for the Frente Amplio’s Gabriel Boric, although Daniel Jadue, the Communist mayor of the Santiago municipality of Recoleta, had been leading public opinion polls for many months. Yet Jadue proved himself to be a spectacularly bad candidate – grumpy, unsympathetic, and arrogant. Of Palestinian descent, Jadue has vocally supported the most extreme elements in the Palestinian cause, going so far as accusing Jews of controlling the media, leading to accusation of antisemitism from groups such as the Simon Wiesenthal Center. His program was unapologetically Communist, and included the goal of controlling the media. The outbreak of pro-democracy protests in Cuba did not help: his party issued a statement that predictably claimed that these were the product of American “interference and aggression”. Boric, on the other hand, ran a professional and creative campaign, showing moderation on issues such as Cuba. Indeed, since the beginning of the Chilean social protests in October of 2019, Boric has sought to be a voice of reason, supporting, for example, the cross-party agreement that has led to the constitutional process now under way (the Communist Party opposed it). Although Boric has never done as well as Jadue in the polls, he now stands a fairly good...