Who are Sebastián Sichel and Gabriel Boric, the young winners of the presidential primaries who surprised Chile

This Sunday the candidates Sebastián Sichel and Gabriel Boric made the big blow in the primaries in Chile and became the candidates of the two alliances which will compete for the presidential election on November 21.

In August, more than 3 million Chileans went to the polls to choose between the 4 candidates from the right-wing coalition and the 2 from the left.

In the first block, Chile Vamos, composed mainly of Independent Democratic Union (UDI), National Renewal (RN) and Political Evolution (Evópoli). The, Sichel took the victory with 690,391 votes.

Meanwhile at the second block, I approve of dignity, led by the Communist Party (PC) and the sectors of the new left represented by the Frente Amplio, Boric was elected with 1,054,031 votes.

It was the primary election with the highest turnout in the country’s history. Chile Vamos received 1,328,049 votes and I Approve Dignity 1,728,231 votes.

Along with the election of Boric and Sichel, the results of these primaries put pressure on the political blocs that did not participate in this vote to be defined as soon as possible: either join these blocs in victory, or compete on equal terms at the end of the year.

Boric, from the far south, goes in search of La Moneda

Gabriel Boric was born in Punta Arenas, in the far south of the country, on February 11, 1986 and is a renowned politician, lawyer and member of the Convergence sociale (CS) party.. His first studies were carried out at the British School in Punta Arenas and in 2004 he entered the University of Santiago.

Boric, 35, is one of the youngest politicians in the making and one with the biggest projections for the future.

His first steps in politics date back to 1999 and 2000 when Boric participated in the refoundation of the Federation of Secondary Students of Punta Arenas. At the same time, at the University of Chile, he joined the political group Izquierda Autónoma. In 2016, he founded the Autonomist Movement.

In 2008, Boric took one of the most important stages of his career: he was elected councilor of the Federation of Students of the University of Chile (Fech), while the following year he was elected president of the Center for Law Students at the University of Chile. He was a university senator at the University of Chile between 2010 and 2011.

In 2012, he assumed the presidency of Date and He was responsible for leading the student movement which started in 2011. There he became a recognized face, which boosted his career so that in November 2017 he was elected deputy representing the Autonomist Movement for the 28th District, the Magallanes Region and Chilean Antarctica.

In the context of the massive Chilean protests of October 2019, Boric integrated the signing of the “Agreement for Social Peace of Chile and the New Constitution”, erected on the night of November 15 of the same year after a series of violent demonstrations in the streets, giving start of the current constitutional process.

Among his main ideas in a possible future government, that of a tax for the “super rich” stands out, to re-found the Carabinieri de Chile as a civilian police force in favor of Human Rights, in addition to promising an economic and health recovery through a national health care system, a mental health plan and a transformation of work so that it can ensure greater democratic participation and worker parity in business directories.

Sebastián Sichel, from minister to candidate

Sebastián Sichel was born on July 30, 1977. He is a lawyer and he is married to journalist Bárbara Encina, with whom he has 3 children.

He studied at Alexander Flemming College and obtained his law degree from the Pontificia Universidad Católica (PUC), where he also studied a master’s degree in public law.

At 30 changed the surname Iglesias (from his stepfather) which he used until then to Sichel (from his biological father) Yes was one of the founders of the newspaper El Dínamo, in 2010, where he was Managing Director of this platform until 2013. He was also professor of constitutional law Yes Director of the School of Government of the University of San Sebastián.

Sichel was a member of the Independent Democratic Party between 2003 and 2014, close to former President Patricio Aylwin and his daughter Mariana. In 2009 he tried to be a deputy for the municipalities of Peñalolén and La Reina, but was not elected. In 2013, he tried the same with the eastern sector of Santiago, in which he also had no luck.

During Sebastián Piñera’s second government, he assumed the vice-presidency of the Production Development Corporation (Corfo) and in June of 2019 took over as Minister of Development. A year later, he was appointed president of BancoEstado.

Among his main ideas for a possible future government, Sichel has promised to cut red tape, facilitate entrepreneurship and improve the social protection network.

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