Chile elected its new president in December 2025, reiterating the political tradition of alternation between right-wing and left-wing governments, but with a new component: radicalization. José Antonio Kast (Republican Party) is the most right-wing president since the end of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990).
Following a recent rightward shift in Latin America—in countries such as Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Honduras—the Chilean electorate gave the green light to the advance of the right in its most radical facet. After the social unrest of 2019 and the years of Gabriel Boric’s government (2018-2022), a significant portion of the population adhered to Kast’s security-focused and anti-migrant discourse, as well as his public declarations of admiration for Pinochet. Far from generating widespread repulsion, this narrative was relativized in the face of proposals such as the tightening of police repression and the construction of a wall on the border with Bolivia.
What does Kast’s election represent for the gender agenda in Chile?
For feminist movements like the Coordinadora 8M, Kast embodies a political project associated with the destruction of social security, violence, the regression of rights, and impunity. Throughout the electoral process, the collective warned about the concrete risks that the election of the far-right leader represented for the rights achieved by women in the country. Similarly, the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation (Movilh) declared it was on high alert following the election results.
These groups, in particular feminists, have played an important role in Chilean politics over the last decade, achieving significant progress in terms of rights and participation in the decision-making of the national public debate.
The social unrest of 2019 paved the way for a more participatory and egalitarian institutional agenda, incorporated by the Boric government, which declared itself openly feminist and sought to translate this commitment into public policies, as well as a government composition more representative of the cultural, sexual, and gender diversity of Chilean society. Notable advances include: the approval of equal marriage, the creation of the national registry of alimony debtors, and the enactment of a comprehensive law for the prevention of and fight against violence against women.
At the international level, Chile took an unprecedented step by becoming the first country in South America to officially adopt a Feminist Foreign Policy. With a strong emphasis on the care economy, this policy has sought to consolidate institutional mechanisms capable of transforming feminisms into state policies, and not just government policies. The question that arises now is: what will be the direction of this agenda under the Kast presidency?
The precedents
Kast is a historical figure in Chilean politics and has declared himself against abortion. His political actions reveal a pattern of opposition to advances in the rights of women and sexual dissidents.
Chilean experts identify this set of stances as an expression of the so-called “values agenda,” which, far from being marginal, structures Kast’s political project and translates into direct attacks against equal marriage, adoption by same-sex couples, and the recognition of gender identity.
In the 2025 presidential race, Kast deliberately chose to avoid topics related to sexual and gender rights, redirecting his campaign toward agendas such as the economy, security, and social reform. This decision does not represent an ideological change, but rather a strategic adjustment regarding the so-called “values” agenda, aimed at expanding his support base beyond the traditional conservative core.
A study conducted by the LGBTI+ Rights Electoral Observatory indicates that the agenda of sexual and gender dissident rights occupied significantly less space in the campaigns of conservative candidates, in contrast to those of the left. Unlike his 2017 and 2021 candidacies, in 2025 Kast began to invest in specific strategies to capture the female vote, such as increasing the presence of women in positions of responsibility within his campaign team.
The deliberate distancing from this topic does not indicate a commitment to preserving the advances or agendas already achieved, but rather reveals a political strategy adjusted to a context of strong feminist resistance in the country.
Added to this is the electoral interpretation that the female vote was one of the decisive factors in Boric’s victory in 2021, precisely in the runoff against Kast himself. This time, the argumentative strategy proved to be more sophisticated: instead of confronting the left-wing discourses that defend sexual and gender rights, Kast’s campaign chose to empty the debate, signaling that this would not be an urgent issue for the country.
In his first speech as president-elect, it can be said that Kast reiterated this tactic by adopting a “pacifying” discourse, asking for respect for opponents and stating that he would govern “for everyone.” However, during the speech, this “for everyone” was not accompanied by the recognition of indicators of gender, sexuality, class, race, and ethnicity, which directly interferes with the violence and inequalities experienced by certain populations. It cannot be forgotten that Kast is part of a transnational ultraconservative movement, with clear ideological affinities with other political figures such as Javier Milei (Argentina), Donald Trump (USA), and Giorgia Meloni (Italy), for example.
The big question right now is whether the new president will close the Ministry of Women and Gender Equality, whether he will suspend the financing of public policies focused on equal rights, and whether he will abandon the Feminist Foreign Policy. So far, no closure has been announced, but rather a reformulation. And what does that mean?
One thing has become clear: gender is not a priority issue. And, if it is not a government priority, it can easily become an insignificant agenda, without funding and, therefore, without the strength to resist. Drastic measures are not the only ways to interrupt progress and the construction of more just and inclusive societies for women and sexual dissidents. Ignoring, brushing aside, and minimizing the urgency is a silent and often more effective strategy.
The future of feminisms in Chile and beyond
Faced with this shift toward the far right in Chile, feminist movements have responded not only with warnings but also with the reactivation of historical memories of resistance. In a statement published on December 14, the Coordinadora Feminista 8M affirmed that times marked by fear and frustration demand greater social mobilization, not retreat. For the collective, facing the new political cycle involves recovering intergenerational legacies of feminist articulation, such as those of the Movement for the Emancipation of Chilean Women (MEMCH), which incorporated an anti-fascist horizon during the dictatorship.
Kast’s election is part of a regional context of strengthening ultraconservative projects, such as those of Javier Milei in Argentina and the re-articulation of the far right in Brazil. Countries that share histories of authoritarianism and state violence also share feminist traditions forged in resistance, from the experience of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo to contemporary Chilean feminist mobilizations.
More than anticipating the direction of Kast’s government, feminisms reaffirm that the fight will take place not only at the institutional level but also through social mobilization, the building of solidarity networks, and the active defense of democracy. In contexts of regression, ignoring is also a form of violence, and resistance remains a political urgency.
*Machine translation, proofread by Ricardo Aceves
Autor
PhD in Political Science from IESP/University of the State of Rio de Janeiro. Specialist in feminist foreign policy and independent consultant.
PhD candidate at the Institute of International Relations of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (IRI/PUC-Rio). Master's degree in International Relations (Unesp, Unicamp, PUC-SP) and is a guest collaborator of the Observatory of Inclusive Feminist Foreign Policy (OPEFI).
