Chilean communist Jeannette Jara defeated her center-left rival to win the presidential nomination for Chile’s left-wing coalition in a landslide.
Jara secured over 60% of the vote, signaling the Chilean Left’s commitment to shift even further left in the face of a resurgent Right. Chile’s president is decided by two rounds of voting, with the two most popular candidates going on to a runoff election if no one secures at least 50% outright. Jara will face several centrist, center-right, and right-wing candidates in the general election in November.
“Today begins a new path that we will walk together, with the conviction to build a fairer and more democratic Chile,” Jara wrote on social media. “In the face of the threat from the far Right, we respond with unity, dialogue and hope.”
The Chilean Left is the only one to hold a primary. Many right-wing candidates have opted out of a primary, preferring to go on to election day with several candidates. Left-wing President Gabriel Boric, who is term-limited, voiced hope that the united front would be sufficient to hold back the right-wing tide overtaking the country.
“The important thing is that by the end of the day, the progressive sectors are going to be behind a single candidate,” he told reporters after Sunday’s voting.
If elected, Jara would be the first Marxist since President Salvador Allende, elected in 1970, who was famously deposed by a military coup led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet in 1973. Chile’s Communist Party struggled to regain prominence after the restoration of democracy in 1990.
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After taking office amid a wave of growing left-wing sentiment across Latin America in 2022, Boric’s approval rating has since been cut in half from the roughly 50% support he enjoyed upon election. A recent poll found his approval rating at 27%.
Boric’s popularity plunged over public dissatisfaction over his handling of crime and immigration, driven by an influx of Venezuelan migrants. The right wing has likewise surged in popularity.