Officialdom’s Primaries: Is This the End of Center-Left Politics?

The recent primary elections resulted in a significant victory for communist candidate Jeannette Jara, followed by Carolina Tohá, who represented the so-called Democratic Socialism. Gonzalo Winter, from the Broad Front (FA), and Jaime Mulet, from the Green Social Regionalist Federation (FRVS), finished far behind. Overall, considering the low participation rate, the primaries highlighted a strong disconnect between the government and the public. Winter, a representative of the president’s party, received minimal public support, garnering less than 10% of the preferences, placing him in third position.

The electoral day was marked by low participation compared to all previous conventional elections. This was even lower given that it was the first to bring together parties from two political blocs, left and center-left, that make up the current government.

Jeannette Jara won convincingly, achieving 60% of the votes. For several weeks, Jara had been running an effective campaign, which included a harsh critique of Carolina Tohá for her management as a minister. She did not hesitate to express her disagreements and distancing from the official line of the Communist Party (PC). Although the voting revolved around supporters of the current government, this strategy allowed Jara to capture part of the FA’s electorate.

Winter’s campaign, worthy of analysis in a psychoanalytic session due to its obsessive fixation on the so-called 30 years generation, at times seemed to replicate the conflict between child and parent, manifested by both the candidate and his closest advisors. Meanwhile, the FA candidate’s campaign consistently aimed to harm only one of the other candidates, as most critiques referred to those supporting the representative of Democratic Socialism. In addition to attracting FA voters, Jara also appealed to some of the socialist electorate, a group that has not managed to overcome its existential dilemmas and conflicts at this point. With the victory of the communist candidate, the position and influence of the Socialist Party (PS) within the left spectrum is starting to shrink to minimal expression.

Regardless of the number of voters, it was said that this election would be more significant than the presidential one scheduled for November. It has been significant because it opens a new phase in which, for the first time since the return of democracy, the center-left presents itself without its own candidate. As has been occurring since 2021, those representing the political center are weakening to the point of disappearing or only being able to compete in the first round of the presidential race. The center and center-left organizations have been the most affected by the fragmentation and crisis affecting the entire party system.

The roots of this weakening are deep. They stem, in part, from the lack of programmatic proposals from those who have attempted to represent the center and the repercussions of the electoral defeat suffered by the ex-Concertación in January 2010. The parties of that coalition never recovered from the defeat, being forced to depend on the charisma—rather than leadership—of former president Bachelet. It was Bachelet herself who turned a blind eye at various moments affecting the ex-Concertación parties, starting with the Christian Democracy (DC) and moving on to the recent defeat suffered by Democratic Socialism. Indeed, she overlooked the emergence of Marco Enríquez-Ominami (MEO) in 2009, failing to explicitly support the candidate of the then government; she ignored it again in 2014 by admitting leaders from the Democratic Revolution (RD) during her second term; then in 2017 with the appearance of the FA; in 2021 by allowing Paula Narváez’s entry, which was merely a maneuver for the PS to support Boric in the first round; and finally, by not expressing her support for the Democratic Socialism candidate, opting for a deafening silence. From the Government and from the United Nations, or wherever she has been, ultimately Bachelet’s decisions ended up affecting the parties of the ex-Concertación.

There has been no possibility of recovering the standing that center-left parties once had, much less strengthening the political center. Additionally, there exists the mistaken belief that the center does not require clear and appealing proposals for the electorate. This belief is fueled by other assumptions, such as promoting technical solutions over political ones, and worse, resorting to means that ultimately are counterproductive, like anti-politics and anti-partisanship. Therefore, the primary results demonstrate that Boric’s great legacy at this moment is polarization, as it induces a simultaneous strengthening of the more extreme positions on the right.

Jara’s victory raises a significant question: Can she assert herself against the options currently offered by the right? Jara was effective to the point of striking at Tohá’s candidacy by criticizing her poor handling of security issues. She was unrepentant in utilizing one of the most common resources used by the right in her critique of the current government. In doing so, she never acknowledged that her own party opposed several security initiatives. However, such tactics do not serve when facing the right itself, nor does attempting to decommunize the campaign, as she did before the primary, achieving only to attract some of the FA’s supporters.

Of course, this does not mean that Jara cannot be a competitive candidate. The worst mistake made by the right is underestimating her and thinking that the presidential election could, by default, be resolved in favor of one of their candidates. Mere anti-communism, no matter how visceral, can be a limited resource if not accompanied by other types of propositions. Jara is charismatic, prepared, and of popular origin, which allows her to reach beyond the left itself. She effectively criticized the elitism of other sectors for the recent elections. While Jara’s anti-elitism was genuine, referring to her own biography, Winter’s appeared as mere imposture. Therefore, if the indecisions, divisions, lack of coherence, and especially in Matthei’s candidacy, the total disorder in the campaign persist, the right itself may find itself outpaced by the advance of the official candidate. Figures from that sector like Pablo Zalaquett have already opened their doors to her, as well as representatives from the business sector, including Juan Sutil, who anointed her and supported her by proposing pension reform.