In a runoff held on Dec. 14, 2025, Jose Antonio Kast, a Republican Party ex-congressman and two-time former presidential candidate, won just over 58% of the vote, while his opponent, Jeannette Jara, the left-wing labor minister of current President Gabriel Boric, won nearly 42%. As a result of those new election rules, which went into place in 2022, an estimated 5 million to 6 million new voters went to the polls. These voters ' found to be largely younger, male and lower-middle class ' are seen as lacking a strong ideological identity and rejecting politics altogether. The verdict delivered by Chile's voters puts it in line with a broader right-wing regional shift ' most recently in Bolivia ' that has reversed the 'pink tide' of left-leaning governments in the past two decades. But as a historian of modern Latin America and Chile, I believe Chile's election also reflects the important local context of years of increasing disenchantment with the political system. Amid Chile's...
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