On Sunday, Chileans voted to give conservative former President Sebastian Piñera a new four-year term, replacing President Michelle Bachelet, who also preceded Piñera's first term (2010-2014). Piñera, a 68-year-old billionaire, beat challenger Alejandro Guillier, a center-left journalist, by a wider-than-expected 9 percentage points. Guillier congratulated Piñera and promised to lead a "constructive opposition" to Piñera's agenda of dismantling Bachelet's center-left reforms. "Chile needs dialogue and collaboration more than confrontation," Piñera said Sunday night.
After underperforming in the first round of voting in November, Piñera veered to the right politically, promising to derail a same-sex marriage bill Bachelet's government introduced in August and improve the living conditions of military officers jailed for crimes against humanity, as well as lower business taxes. His party did not win a majority in Congress, though, complicating his agenda.
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