Communist Party Wins Mayoral Race In Chile’s Capital City

Irací Hassler of the Communist Party of Chile has been elected Mayor of the Santiago borough in the country’s capital city, Santiago. The win in one of the largest municipalities of the country comes as part of a wave of leftist victories in the country’s regional elections and a victory in the constituent elections. 

“We’re very happy, we hope that what’s happened here in Santiago is the prelude to what will happen in the rest of the country, where never again will we be governed by the right, who go against the interests of our people who’ve suffered hunger, misery and precarity under the abandonment by the current municipal authorities, who’ve never looked after the working class districts. We have a historic opportunity now,” proclaimed Irací Hassler as she announced her victory late Sunday night. 

30-year-old Hassler, who was a student leader during the struggles for free education, is now an economist at the University of Chile.

Her party’s presidential candidate, Daniel Jadue, said that her victory was “perhaps the most formidable defeat for the government.”

Jadue himself was re-elected Mayor of Recoleta with 60% of the vote. Announcing his victory, he commented to the press: “These results are beginning to show that the sectors that are searching for a real transformation of society have obtained an overwhelming victory. This consolidates the need not only for a new constitution that is democratic, but also in the near future, a people’s government.”

Meanwhile, the right-wing Vamos Por Chile coalition only won the governorship of one region, Los Rios. The electoral defeat of the ruling party was also reflected in the constituent elections, where they were unable to obtain the one-third of seats necessary to veto articles of the new constitution. 

The results have triggered the biggest fall in the stock market since the beginning of the pandemic in Chile, last March. JP Morgan even released a statement, saying, “Traditional politics has been punished. The heterogeneity of the independents and of extreme left over the moderates suggests a climate of uncertainty about the future.”