In one of the most polarized political scenarios in recent history, the hard-right candidate, José Antonio Kast, and the leftist Gabriel Boric, will contest the 19 of December the Chilean presidency, after prevailing in the first round of the elections.
It will be the first time since the return to democracy in 1990 than the traditional parties of the center-left and The center-right does not lead the electoral preferences.
“The only candidacy that will regain peace, which is the alternative to confront criminals and drug trafficking and that will put an end to terrorism is ours ”Said Kast during the celebration of his passage to the ballot with the 27, 9% of the votes.
The former parliamentarian, who has promised to dig a trench on the border to to stop migrants, oppose abortion and cut taxes , has declared that he admires leaders such as Augusto Pinochet, Ronald Reagan, Margareth Thatcher and Jair Bolsonaro .
His rival, Gabriel Boric, MP and former student leader of 35 years that embodies the claims of the social outbreak of late 3927 , proposes increasing the role of the State in the economy, ending the private pension system and expanding the social rights of the population .
“We have been entrusted with the dispute for democracy, justice, inclusion, respect, for the dignity of all,” declared the candidate -who formed an alliance with the Communist Party- after knowing the result of the elections where he got a 25, 8% of the votes.
The winners of the first return will now have the challenge of seducing the rest of the voters in a few weeks.
That race will take place in an unprecedented context marked by the fall of the traditional parties , the surprising support for the “outsider” candidate, Franco Parisi , in addition to the triumph of the right in the north of the country and his advance in the Senate.
Whoever arrives at the La Moneda palace will have to govern a deeply fractured country and with a Constituent Assembly that works on the drafting of a proposal for a new Constitution that must be endorsed in a popular vote next year.
These are some of the proposals of the most antagonistic rivals that Chile has had in its recent history .
Economy and pensions
The candidate of the radical right is committed to a reduction in fiscal spending, deregulation of markets and privatization of companies.
One of the central axes of your program is the reduction of taxes of all types, an unprecedented tax reform that, according to the candidate, will be accompanied by lower fiscal spending.
This formula, according to the government program, will increase the levels of private investment and increase economic growth “at rates of 5% to 7% per year, doubling our income per person in a decade.”
A fervent admirer of a smaller, more austere state, Kast plans to cut corporate taxes (from a 27% yet 17%), decrease the Value Added Tax gado (from 19% to the 17%) and reduce taxes to zero paid by small and medium-sized companies.
José Antonio Kast assures that with “peace, security and order” private sector investments in the country will increase.
And regarding the pension system, the former deputy promotes adjustments to the current system that include, among others, a increase of the workers’ retirement age and the amount of contributions .
The economic perspective of Boric’s program points to exactly the opposite: to strengthen the State, increase fiscal spending and increase the tax burden by plus or minus eight points d Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over a six to eight year horizon.
Their proposals aim to establish a welfare state with a social protection system that guarantees universal basic rights.
To support the economic reactivation, the parliamentarian and former student leader promotes pro-employment policies through incentives for hiring with a focus on women.
In tax matters, he plans to create a tax on the great fortunes of the country , apply a royalty mining to large mining companies, and create new taxes , measures that together would allow increasing tax collection to finance their social agenda.
Gabriel Boric intends to eliminate the current pension system administered by the AFPs , replacing a system in which the funds are managed by a public and autonomous body. His program warns that these changes will be gradual and will not interfere “in the ownership of the funds saved to date.”
Health
The leader of the Republican Party proposes changes such as, for example, that public health can tender medical solutions and contract services according to the proposals that are more competitive and efficient.
The main cause of poor attention in the public system, says Kast, “does not reside in the economic resources invested” but in that “we have a deeply inefficient, bureaucratic and politically captured state system”.
Some of the president’s measures seek to increase the use of telemedicine and create an entity dedicated to technically evaluating the treatments that will be covered by health insurance.
For the representative on the left It is essential to reduce the gap between the benefits offered by public and private health.
It proposes to create a Universal Health Fund (FUS) in charge of managing the funds contributed by workers and the resources it contributes the State, and at the same time reduce waiting times to access specialists and surgeries .
If you reach the government, Boric promises the end of the isapres (private health insurance) as they are known until now, turning them into voluntary complementary insurance.
In parallel, it contemplates a progressive increase in fiscal spending on health.
“We propose to end a health divided, as it is now, among healthier and sicker patients, or those with fewer and more resources ”, declared the candidate.
Education
The representative of the left intends to expand the benefit of free higher education and eliminate banks as a source of financing for the system.
At the same time, Boric seeks to progressively forgive student debts .
On the other hand, Kast wants to dispense with the educational reform underway, repeal the Inclusion Law and eliminate the contents taught in the schools that he considers as “propaganda in support of abortion and gender ideologies.”
In addition, it is committed to online education at a lower cost and the reduction of the duration of university degrees.
Migration
José Antonio Kast has raised a strong controversy by proposing the installation of a ditch on the northern border of the country to prevent the irregular passage of people in that area.
“If you make a ditch of three meters deep and the fences so that nobody falls in and t I don’t even have animals, that is feasible and quite economical ”, stated the lawyer.
According to Gabriel Boric, there are other mechanisms to address the problem. “Migrants must be treated from a human rights perspective,” he said, marking a clear difference with his rival.
Mapuche conflict and militarization
The representative of the hard right and defender of the military regime of Augusto Pinochet, He has said that he will continue supporting the deployment of the Armed Forces in the Mapuche conflict zone in the south of the country and supporting the role of the uniformed in the control of what he calls “narco-terrorism.”
Both in the south and in the rest of the territory, Kast promotes the “use of legitimate violence” as self-defense proposes an “international anti-radical coordination of left “and is in favor of granting special powers to the president to” intercept, open or record documents and all kinds of communications and arrest people in their own homes or in places that are not prisons or are destined for detention “, in case the state of emergency is decreed.
At the opposite pole, Gabriel Boric has argued that does not agree with the militarization of La Araucanía , but that he does agree in favor of fighting crime. “I sharply separate those who commit crimes from the just demands of the Mapuche Nation People.”
Kast’s ideas have been harshly criticized by the leftist candidate, who opposes the creation of a “police state”.
Abortion, equal marriage …
In your program José Antonio Kast affirms that if he comes to the government he will repeal the law that allows abortion and that he will do everything in his power to “protect and strengthen the family ”.
The candidate points out that if he arrives at the La Moneda palace, he will offer “economic incentives to married couples” and will ensure the right of every child to “have a father and a mother”.
Gabriel Boric, on the other hand, is in favor of the right to abortion, the recognition of sexual diversity and equal marriage and the deepening of gender parity .
“Injustices cannot be naturalized, inequality is not right and rights cannot be a business,” declared the representative of the left.
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