The Christian Democrats have beaten the new left …

From Santiago de Chile

A true definition of penalties, barely an hour after the tables close of the second round for the post of governor of the metropolitan region of Santiago between Karina Oliva (Frente Amplio) and Claudio Orrego (Democracia Cristiana). Each order smiled or looked down, with the flags and banners hidden. It is with 71% of the tables scrutinized Oliva won by one point, a few minutes later with 90% Orrego won by almost the same figure. Until the hugs finally begin at DC HQ: Orrego won by 52.73% (784,139 votes) against 47.27% of his rival (703,071).

The explanation is simple and very representative of the Chilean capital: the first votes that began to be counted came from the most popular municipalities such as Maipú or La Pintana and the last from the more affluent areas such as Las Condes and La Reina. An authentic course from west to east, where the upper district is located, an area where Orrego can move comfortably.

The post, unprecedented in the country’s history and which replaces the historic post of mayor – elected by the president – by democratic means was part of the megalections of May 15 and 16. with mayors, councilors and those responsible for drafting the new Constitution which will replace that of 1980 imposed by the Pinochet dictatorship. On this occasion, only three regions – Aysén, Magallanes and Valparaíso – had elected a governor, the thirteen others going to the second round.

However, it was la batalla de Santiago era que acaparaba toda la atención, ya que es el shock de dos mundos: el de la centroizquierda that protagonized the transition to Democracia y una nueva izquierda arose la última década, caracterizada por la juventud y un fuerte cuestionamiento a la first.

The two opposing planets

The Christian Democrat Claudio Orrego Larraín (54) represents the elite of the Concertation which governed Chile from the return to democracy until 2010, when it was moved by the first government of Sebastián Piñera. Although in his campaign he tried to show his opposition to the Piñera government, his social commitment through photos and videos of his years as a student leader in the dictatorship., his role in the contested transition as Minister of Housing and National Goods during the government of Ricardo Lagos has been called into question in particular in social networks (2000) and notably as mayor of Santiago during Bachelet’s second government (2014-2018), with a paradoxically repressive profile in the face of student protests.

Anyway, He shone as an experienced councilor and mayor of the municipality of Peñalolén, south of Santiago. A territory where different social classes come together, including a particular Ecological Community – inhabited by artists and actors of progressive thought – and populations emblematic of the resistance against Pinochet such as Lo Hermida. He also has no problem displaying his credentials of academic excellence as a law student at Catholic University and Harvard, although he eThe best Geogean award for the best student of the 1984 generation of the exclusive English school Saint George’s College de Santiago

His campaign bet on calm and political balance against Oliva’s irreverence. “There have been a lot of disqualifications, things have been said about one that was not true,” he defended himself on Saturday in an interview for the newspaper La Tercera. “. I passionately defend ideas but I do not like the little fight to hit us and I think that in the end it was not very pleasant.”

Political scientist and feminist

Is that her universe collided with that of Karina Oliva (36 years old) who took the opportunity to clarify it by telling that her grandparents lived in the sector of Bajo de Mena, one of the poorest cities of the country and that she is the daughter of a taxi driver and a teacher. Politically, he belongs to the Comunes party, which is part of the Large Front, a coalition born after the major student demonstrations of 2011 and whose presidential candidate Gabriel Boric will dispute the first left against the communist Daniel Jadue on July 18. Indeed, she went to vote accompanied by both, marking a strong sign of unity.

A political scientist and feminist, she was interviewed alongside Orrego because of her technical inexperience and her advice to senators like Alejandro Navarro, who, despite his left-wing positions, was part of the political elite he criticized. Although this is the ‘street’, the concept his team sought to promote, with a graphic that includes images of the social epidemic that rocked Chile in October 2019 and which led to a constituent process that is precisely marked by the triumph of the independents and the left representing the political scientist.

His project is precisely to put an end to the model represented by Orrego, by favoring an agenda emphasizing the environment.

Lack of voters

The day, despite the good weather typical of the month of June, was marked by the lack of voters, where in the local of Santiago the ballot boxes were seen with less than a hundred votes at one hour of the closing at 6:00 p.m. in Chile. For some, they are due to the fact that the Metropolitan Region entered phase 1 on Saturday, which, in theory, avoids travel., although it was pointed out that a permit was not required to vote. Another theory is that it is a sum between the unprecedented process, the mistrust of the political class and that the vote is not compulsory.

Barely an hour and a half after the election, with the efficiency that characterizes the counting of votes in the country, the long faces of Oliva’s team contrasted with the hugs and the flags raised from the DC, finally with the confidence that gives a victory which, in any case, was narrow enough to expect surprises for the future from the new generations.