Migration And Crime Fears Propel Chile To The Right In Presidential Vote

Ultra-conservative José Antonio Kast was decisively elected Chile’s president Sunday, driven by growing fears of crime and uncontrolled migration — making it the latest Latin America nation to take a hard turn to the right.

With 83.4% of ballots counted, Kast received about 59% of the vote, followed by leftist Jeannette Jara with 41%, according to electoral body Servel. 

Kast, a right-wing former lawmaker and the son of German post-war immigrants, will take office on March 11 vowing an “emergency government” to swiftly crack down on irregular migration, and cut taxes and public spending. He won in all 16 regions of Chile. 

Though Kast shies away from comparisons, his agenda will align Chile with other global right-wing administrations. In recent years, he has visited with Italian leader Giorgia Meloni, El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele and Hungary’s Viktor Orban. On the campaign trail this year, Kast toned down his conservative social views on issues such as abortion that had alienated moderates during his two previous runs, while sharpening his attacks on unpopular leftist President Gabriel Boric. 

Arturo Squella, the president of Chile’s Republican Party, addressed Kast’s jubilant supporters at the candidate’s headquarters in Santiago’s tony business district of Las Condes, where drivers were waving Chilean flags from their windows and honking their horns in celebration. 

He said that Jara had already called to congratulate the new president elect, and reiterated Kast’s promises to implement an emergency government. 

“Democracy spoke loud and clear,” Jara said in a post on X, conceding the race. A member of Chile’s century-old Communist Party since she was 14, she led a coalition of left and center-left parties to take on Kast, with a focus on social issues and security. She is now positioned to lead the country’s leftist opposition.

Regionally, Kast’s triumph represents the latest rebuke of the left in Latin America after Javier Milei’s party won midterm elections in Argentina and Rodrigo Paz ended 20 years of socialist rule in Bolivia. It also gives US President Donald Trump another ally in a region that has increasingly tilted toward China in recent decades.

His win marks the start of a new political cycle “defined fundamentally by the rationale of change,” said Marco Moreno, director of the Center of Democracy and Public Opinion at Chile’s Central University. Kast’s administration will be driven by efforts to “confront a public security crisis with much harsher and more restrictive measures, and also migration.”

From day one, Kast, 59, will face steep challenges, including a divided Congress and widespread demands for quick results. 

Investors are counting on him to deliver a boost of confidence to Chile’s economy — one of Latin America’s richest — after years of sluggish growth and uncertainty under Boric. He has pledged to cut the corporate tax rate for medium and large companies to 23% from 27%, accelerate economic expansion to 4% from roughly 2.5% now, and streamline regulations.

One of his boldest and most controversial proposals is a pledge to cut $6 billion in public spending within 18 months without reducing social benefits. Critics say the plan is technically unrealistic and unlikely to pass a fragmented Congress, highlighting what many see as Kast’s biggest political handicap: limited experience negotiating outside his inner circle.

“He isn’t someone with well-developed negotiation skills,” said Axel Callis, a sociologist and director of pollster Tuinfluyes.com. “In this sense, he is going to have difficulties.”

Kast’s tight-knit team includes figures from outside Chile’s technocratic establishment. Loyalists expected to play key roles include chief economic adviser Jorge Quiroz, economist Bernardo Fontaine, former congressman Rodrigo Álvarez and businessman Alejandro Irarrázaval. After advancing to the runoff last month, Kast also secured backing from prominent economists who had supported center-right rival Evelyn Matthei.

A trained lawyer who founded Chile’s Republican Party and served 16 years in the lower house, Kast has no executive branch experience. Still, he has criss-crossed Chile for more than a decade and knows the people’s priorities better than anyone, adviser Ivan Poduje said in an interview last month.

This was Chile’s first presidential election under new rules requiring all adults, including legal permanent residents of at least five years, to vote.

Jara topped the Nov. 16 first round with 26.9% of votes, followed by Kast with 23.9%, according to government electoral body Servel.