Primary in Chile: Voters turn to young candidates and dialogues | Different analysts point to the fall of traditional parties

During the presidential primaries on the left and right, the Chileans favored young candidates who they seek changes to the model gradually and moderately. This has been confirmed by various analysts who point to the fall of traditional parties in Sunday’s elections. “Those who lost were in a more defensive view, defending the past rather than the future“, he assured Juan Pablo Luna, PhD in political and academic sciences from the Universidad Católica de Chile.

With 35 years (the minimum age to compete for the presidency of Chile) Gabriel Boric, Member of Social Convergence, member of the Left Frente Amplio, it was imposed on the Communist Daniel Jadue. In the right-wing primaries, the youngest candidate also won: the independent Sebastián Sichel, 43 years old, who left behind the historic ultra-conservative leader Joaquín Lavín. Former ministers in the government of Sebastián Piñera, Mario Desbordes and Ignacio Briones also competed.

Mayor of the popular district of Recoleta north of Santiago, Communist Jadue topped polls for the left-wing presidential race for over a year for the November 21 elections. Pero Boric, graduate of the law degree, he ended up with the victory with a surprising 60.43% of the vote compared to the 39.5% collected by Jadue.

Many argue this influenced the fact that last week Jadue toughened his tone against Boric. In addition the voters of the exaggeration, the party conglomerate that ruled Chile for 20 years after the end of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship (1973-1990), they would have supported Boric’s candidacy more. The center-left sector has not yet defined its presidential candidate, so its voters have had carte blanche in these primaries.

Former leader of student protests in 2011, Boric has the challenge of summoning the most central voters without neglecting the more radical left which seeks to deepen the changes in the neoliberal model that have grown the Chilean economy, leaving behind great social inequalities.

On the right side, Sichel won 49.08% of the vote against 31% for Lavín, who in the 1999 elections fought the socialist Ricardo Lagos in the second round. Lawyer and former Minister of Social Development in the Piñera government, Sichel represents “the exit of the traditional ideological barrier of the right, leaving a conservative right thinking of a rather liberal right”, according to the coordinator of the School of Political Sciences of the University of Diego. Portales, Rodrigo Espinoza.

“It’s a cycle change, think about the gradual fall of historical and traditional political parties which has marked the political spectrum of Chile since the transition to democracy ”, he added Espinoza to explain the triumph of the two young leaders. For its part Pamela Figueroa, an academic from the University of Santiago, said: “Citizens want profound changes, but they want these changes to go through dialogue and the construction of majorities”.