The far-right candidate José Antonio Kast said on Sunday that «today the opposition defeated a failed government» and that «it did not know how to direct the destiny of the country», after coming in second in Chile's presidential elections and advancing to a second round against leftist Jeannette Jara. «Millions of Chileans have decided to embrace a project that the opposition is presenting to this failed government, to this bad government, which has harmed our country,» expressed the far-right candidate in his official speech as a candidate for the second round on December 14. Kast, who received 24% of the vote with 94% of the votes counted, has already secured the support of the candidates from the most radical far-right, Johannes Kaiser, and from the traditional right, Evelyn Matthei, who came in fourth and fifth with 13.9% and 12.5% of the vote, respectively. «Tonight Chile did wake up, but it woke up for real, after six years of violence, ideology, and mediocrity,» said the 51-year-old former deputy in relation to the slogan of the massive 2019 protests that marked the arrival to power of progressive Gabriel Boric, who will leave power in March, and led to two failed constituent processes. After thanking God «first and foremost», Kast insisted that he wants «a real change», «a government with character» and that he is competing to change Chile «from the roots, to overcome fear, despair, and anguish». Before his official speech, he thanked the support offered for the second round by the already ex-candidates Kaiser and Matthei and stressed that «unity is fundamental» for the face-off with Jara and that the common goal is «to avoid the continuity of a very bad government, perhaps the worst in Chile's democratic history,» he emphasized. It remains to be seen for whom the right-wing populist Franco Parisi, who came in third and was the surprise of the night, will ask for votes, but for now he has only said that Kast and Jara «will have to fight for it». Even without his endorsements, the numbers for the second round are favorable to the far-right. Since 2006, power has alternated between left and right, and no president has handed over the presidential sash to a successor of the same political sign. The elections were held in a context of great electoral fatigue after the successive elections held since the massive 2019 protests and due to discontent with Boric's management, whose approval is around 30%, and who will leave La Moneda next March.
