Chile elects 35-year-old leftist Gabriel Boric as president

Chileans on Sunday elected Gabriel Boric, a leftist millennial who gained prominence as a student leader during anti-government protests in 2019 and 2020, as their next president. His ultra-conservative rival, José Antonio Kast, conceded defeat about 90 minutes after polls closed, with Boric leading him by a wider-than-expected 12 percentage points, according to incomplete results. Boric will be the youngest leader in modern Chilean history, and the second-youngest leader in the West, following San Marino's Giacomo Simoncini.
Outgoing President Sebastian Pinera, a conservative billionaire, congratulated Boric on a publicly broadcast video call and pledged his government's support during the three-month transition period. Boric vowed to do his "best to rise to this tremendous challenge."
Boric ran on a platform of fighting climate change and economic inequality, reducing the workweek to 40 hours from 45, and transforming Chile's health care and private pensions systems — holdovers from the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet — into a more European-style social democratic model, all "without veering toward the authoritarianism embraced by so much of the left in Latin America, from Cuba to Venezuela," The Associated Press reports.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Chileans recently voted to replace Pinochet's constitution with a new one, and the late Pinochet, who took control of Chile in a 1973 coup and ruled until 1990, loomed over the polarizing election. Kast, whose older brother was a top adviser to Pinochet, defended the former dictator, under whom more than 3,000 people were killed or disappeared by the state. It also emerged during that campaign that Kast's German emigrant father was a card-carrying member of Adolf Hitler's Nazi party.
But Kast's quick concession and tweet congratulating Borck on his "great triumph" was "a model of democratic civility that broke from the polarizing rhetoric of the campaign" AP reports. Kast then " traveled personally to Boric's campaign headquarters to meet with his rival."
Voter turnout was 56 percent, a record since mandatory voting was scrapped 2012, and 1.2 million more people voted Sunday than in the first round that set up the Boric-Kast race. "It's impossible not to be impressed by the historic turnout, the willingness of Kast to concede and congratulate his opponent even before final results were in, and the generous words of President Pinera," said Cynthia Arnson, head of the Latin America program at the Wilson Center in Washington. "Chilean democracy won today, for sure."
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
Trump executive order targets homeless
Speed Read It will now be easier for states and cities to remove homeless people from the streets
-
Columbia pays $200M to settle with White House
Speed Read The Trump administration accused the school of failing to protect its Jewish students amid pro-Palestinian protests
-
Florida judge and DOJ make Epstein trouble for Trump
Speed Read The Trump administration's request to release grand jury transcripts from the Epstein investigation was denied
-
Trump attacks Obama as Epstein furor mounts
Speed Read The Trump administration accused the Obama administration of 'treasonous' behavior during the 2016 election
-
Trump administration releases MLK files
Speed Read Newly released documents on the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did not hold any new revelations, King historians said
-
Japan's prime minister feels pressure after election losses
Speed Read Shigeru Ishiba has vowed to remain in office
-
Who stands to gain – and lose – from 16-year-old voters?
Today's Big Question Many assume Labour will benefit but move could 'backfire' if Greens, a new hard-left party or Reform continue to pick up momentum
-
President diagnosed with 'chronic venous insufficiency'
Speed Read The vein disorder has given Trump swollen ankles and visible bruising on his hands