Viva Chile mierda!", shouted young people waving different flags (national, diversity, native peoples', Boric's own) in the main streets of Santiago and the regions after the first irreversible results from the Electoral Service (Servel), celebrating the victory of the left-wing candidate Gabriel Boric (55.9%) over the Pinochet candidate, José Antonio Kast (44.1%), who did not take long to acknowledge his defeat.

The axes of his government, as promised in his first speech, will be public health and education, a public pension system, creating a national care system, guaranteeing workers' rights, respect for human rights and the rights of indigenous peoples, women and the LGBT+ community, and climate change.

"If Chile was the cradle of neoliberalism, it will also be its grave," said Boric, now president, in his first words as a left-wing candidate.

With this result, the Chilean left not only reopened the doors of history when, with the same percentage, the democratic forces prevented the perpetuation of the dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1988, but also confirms the progressive trend in the region, which is expressed in the need for a new model of economic development, more supportive and democratic, and the strengthening of the state in areas related to social goods and services such as health, education, pensions, housing and food.

The great avenues opened up

With more than 4,5 million votes, Gabriel Boric (until now deputy for his native region of Magallanes and former president of the Student Federation of the University of Chile) will enter La Moneda on 11 March 2022 as the youngest (36 years old) and most voted president in the history of Chile, leaving behind the authoritarian involution and giving way to the conquest of new rights that the president-elect wants to finance with a progressive tax reform that seeks to raise an additional 5% of GDP during his government.

"I was in Plaza Baquedano or Plaza Dignidad (where Chileans celebrate everything and today it is an emblematic place of social revolt) when Ricardo Lagos defeated Joaquín Lavín in 1999 and also when Michelle Bachelet defeated Sebastián Piñera in 2005, but this Sunday it felt different", says Nayareth Quevedo, PSI's sub-regional secretary for the Southern Cone, who assures that "it has been a long time since a president-elect awakened so much joy in the people".

She also says that the emotion experienced is not only because of the historic vote for a candidate and the high turnout that exceeded 55% of an electoral roll that had been declining in recent years and that only rebounded with the plebiscite of "I approve" and "I reject"; but "because of his programme that promises to move towards a welfare state and leave behind the neoliberalism that made life precarious for millions of Chileans who rose up in October 2019".

This Sunday, Chile spoke of its yearnings, its dreams and its hopes. An election that seduced the disenchanted and raised the undecided out of bed. An election that broke the cycle of traditional centre-left and centre-right party politics. And although the worst was feared with the boycott of public transport and the long queues, these situations did not harm the final victory.

"As of 19 December, Chile now has a hopeful horizon. The citizens have spoken and have expressed in their vote the will to implement profound changes to build a better society, where the role of the state and the strengthening of public services will give the Chilean people more dignity," said PSI General Secretary Rosa Pavanelli, who also valued positively the progress of the left with the victories in Peru and Honduras, while she expects similar results in Brazil and Colombia.

"We have managed to defeat pinochetism, rejectionism, the ultra-right, fascism, despite all the trickery and the dirty campaign of terror that was amplified thanks to the media on their side, despite the huge resources in propaganda, despite having a government campaigning from the most unusual spaces. Despite all that, we managed to overcome fear and give way to hope, which finally won", added Carolina Espinoza, vice-president of the Interamerican Regional Women's Committee and member of WOC.

For political analysts, the victory - after four weeks of campaigning since the first round on 21 November - was due to a people who organised themselves from Arica to Punta Arenas with the help of the young former president of the Medical Association, Izkia Siches, one of their best signings for the second-round campaign, and the support of the centre-left - from Lagos to Bachelet - who were open to backing important measures of his programme such as structural reforms to the private pension system.

Boric will govern with a minority in Congress: Apruebo Dignidad has only 37 of the 155 deputies and 5 of the 50 senators.

The triumph of Apruebo Dignidad, a coalition born of the previous political battle (the one that succeeded in setting up the Constitutional Convention), is inscribed with the promise of change, and Carolina is well aware of this and does not hesitate to say that through Boric's government "we are going to make all our dreams, hopes and yearnings that we have achieved through this constituent process viable. In other words, we have the certain possibility of drafting the contents of a new Constitution with citizen participation and to look forward to the exit plebiscite with optimism so that we can put an end to the legacy of the dictatorship and have a truly democratic Constitution, with a strong, democratic social state that guarantees rights and allows a country with more social justice".

However, these changes will not be easy. From March, Boric will govern with a clear minority in the National Congress: Apruebo Dignidad has only 37 of the 155 deputies and 5 of the 50 senators.

Alliances with other progressive sectors could give him a slim majority in the Chamber of Deputies, but in the Senate, the right and the far-right have exactly half of the seats.

"PSI affiliates have played a leading role in this whole process that Chile is going through," says Carolina Espinoza

It will not be easy, therefore, to implement a programme that essentially aims to establish a genuine welfare state in the country where the neoliberal project was launched (in blood and fire in the midst of the Pinochet dictatorship) and as a result, Chile is one of the nations where social injustice is most pronounced, where the cost of living is similar to that of Spain, where half of the workers have a monthly income of less than 500 euros, where pensions do not exceed 300 euros per month, where water is private, as is health and education, and where the richest 1% of the population has 30% of the wealth and 0.25% of the wealthiest taxpayers have a financial wealth of more than two hundred billion dollars, three times the national budget.

The grave of neoliberalism

The task of burying the last vestige of the dictatorship, the neo-liberal model, will undoubtedly be a titanic task, and for this reason, PSI affiliates have played a leading role in this whole process that Chile is going through, and even for many years with the defence of public services", emphasises Carolina, and stresses that the work of the unions in the Chilean Coordinating Committee in this campaign focused on "awareness-raising actions in the face of all the threats expressed in the programme of the neo-liberal model, Espinoza stresses and highlights the work of the unions united in the Chilean Coordinating Committee in this campaign focused on "awareness-raising actions against all the threats expressed in José Antonio Kast's government programme, such as the reduction of the state and the deepening of the model, and we call on everyone to transform Chile into the tomb of neoliberalism".

Boric will have to face this challenge, as he will undoubtedly require political and social alliances with a people who said in October 2019 that they had had enough of abuses and had woken up. The youngest president with the most votes in democratic history will have the challenge of implementing a progressive project that articulates social change and the defence of human rights.

"We don't want them to continue doing business with our pensions... we are going to defend an autonomous not-for-profit public system without AFPs," Boric announced

"There are many challenges that we will have to face," Boric continued in detailing his plans for the future. "Timely health care that does not discriminate between rich and poor, equalising upwards access, quality and response times. Decent pensions for those who have worked all their lives making our Chile great and can no longer wait. We don't want them to continue doing business with our pensions. Growth and fair distribution of wealth, which must go hand in hand. The AFPs in Chile that today earn absurd amounts at the expense of the work of Chilean men and women are part of the problem and we are going to defend an autonomous not-for-profit public system without AFPs. The drama of the lack of housing and access to basic services that we must address. Strengthen public education, guarantee workers' rights to build a country with Decent Work and better wages, create a national care system that recognises and values women who care today, also advancing in co-responsibility and leaving behind the patriarchal heritage of our society".

Yesterday "the great avenues" opened and the crowd listened to a young elected president who addressed his people to tell them that "we have come this far with a government project that can be synthesised in a few simple words: to advance responsibly in the changes that Chile has been demanding, leaving no one behind. This means growing economically; converting what some understand as consumer goods into social rights, guaranteeing a more peaceful and secure life, deepening the freedoms of all, and especially of all: in our government women will not retreat in the rights and freedoms they have achieved throughout history".

Boric's words coincide with the profound changes that Chile has been going through since 2019, when mass protests erupted demanding greater equality and social rights.

And quoting Salvador Allende, who gave his first speech as president 48 years ago in the same place, he concluded: "Tonight we must celebrate, but we will do it calmly. Go home with the healthy joy of the clean victory achieved. I ask you to take care of this triumph, that from tomorrow we will have a lot of work to do to reconnect, heal wounds, and move towards a better future".