By Javiera Munita, a leader of MST Chile, a section of the IWU-FI.<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
13 July 2026.<\/b> Kast\u2019s electoral triumph, securing 58% of the vote in the second round, shocked national politics. Progressivism and centre-left sectors interpreted the massive electoral shift as support for a conservative and ultra-neoliberal manifesto; some even spoke of the arrival of fascism. From the MST, the Chilean section of the IWU-FI, we challenged these readings and maintained that Kast’s would be a weak government, the expression of a deep economic and political crisis that the capitalists have failed to overcome. To this day, reality is proving us right, and incipient mobilisations are emerging, beginning to demonstrate the discontent against the government and its pro-business, anti-popular, and repressive economic plan<\/span><\/p>\n .<\/span><\/p>\n The Weakness of the Chilean Far-Right<\/b><\/p>\n Kast managed to break records in his first hundred days. Within two weeks, polls showed that disapproval of his administration surpassed 50%, while support dropped to the mid-thirties. In just two weeks, he lost the backing of the protest vote against Boric! It is the government that, since the return to democracy, has lost the support it received at the ballot box the fastest. Not only that, but he had to remove two ministers in less than three months of administration, breaking a new record.<\/span><\/p>\n Every poll shows a growing sense of social unrest. Concern that the economic situation of millions of working-class families will worsen is intensifying. This is not an isolated event. When asked whether Kast will fulfil any of his campaign promises, the \u00abNO\u00bb option prevails. Expectations are collapsing like a house of cards.<\/span><\/p>\n The government has been publishing worrying figures. This year, GDP growth will sit below 2%, showing a downturn in the economy compared to previous years. The same applies to forecasts up to 2030, which in the best-case scenario indicate less than 3%, well below the promises made by Kast. Employment is experiencing a crisis, with 40 months of unemployment remaining above 8%. This year it reached 9%, forcing the president to give a bleak press conference calling on workers to \u00abendure\u00bb.<\/span><\/p>\n From La Moneda (the government house), they are responding to the current situation by enforcing an economic plan based on brutal cuts to social and labour rights, alongside state aid. At the same time, they are pushing a reform that will reduce taxes for the ultra-wealthy, grant more state subsidies to their businesses, and allow them to destroy the environment with total impunity. The discourse relies on the claim that \u00abgreater economic growth and investment will resolve the crisis\u00bb, but all their forecasts for the coming years show that we will continue to suffer until 2034, when, by virtue of some miracle, Chile is supposed to grow into an \u00abeconomic powerhouse\u00bb.<\/span><\/p>\n Just in case we fail to understand the virtues of his proposal, Kast is advancing anti-mobilisation laws and the criminalisation of protest. As he declares, \u00absocial order\u00bb is a fundamental component for a country to \u00abattract foreign investment like a magnet\u00bb. In reality, he knows that the Achilles’ heel of his policy is the rising social discontent against a government that fails to fix even one of the problems it promised to solve.<\/span><\/p>\n This is not just a phenomenon in Chile; the global far-right is colliding with the reality of a world moving towards deeper economic troubles and political-social polarisation, where conservative and ultra-neoliberal promises vanish into thin air. Far from the enthusiasm he tries to project, Kast watches with fear the growing weakness of his allied governments around the world.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n How Can One Govern with Creeping Weakness?<\/b><\/p>\n The key to the Chilean far-right’s victory does not lie in a massive shift of support towards its manifesto, nor in the growth of reactionary sectors. On the contrary, it is the response of a protest vote against Boric-style progressivism, which shamelessly governed for multinationals and national business owners. Kast emerges from a social unrest that he fails to capitalise on as political support.<\/span><\/p>\n To govern against rising social discontent, Kast relies on the support of the progressive opposition, who refuse to call for mobilisations. What prevails in these parties is the promise that if we vote for them in four years’ time, we will put an end to the problem. The very same parties whose lies triggered the victory of the far-right are today offering it a shameless truce to impose its plans.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Incipient Mobilisations Express Discontent<\/b><\/p>\n We cannot fail to mention a crucial aspect: the confusion in the consciousness of the working-class people who mistakenly voted for Kast is also expressed in a lack of initiative for mass mobilisation. Although the break with the government is visible, it has not yet provoked an open confrontation with it.<\/span><\/p>\n Nonetheless, mobilisations have been taking place, even against the control of the fake parliamentary opposition. Student organisations have called for various marches that have managed to achieve a national impact. In the latest of these, Kast carried out brutal repression. Alongside these, a 1 June rally against the government\u2014called by feminist organisations, secondary school students, and others\u2014drew a much larger turnout than expected. Signs of discontent expressed through mobilisations are beginning to appear on the horizon in a country where anger is growing.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Way Out is Organisation and Mobilisation, alongside the Construction of New Political Alternatives<\/b><\/p>\n Just as Peronism does with Milei in Argentina, or the Democrats in the US with Trump, capitalist oppositions allow attacks against the people. Failing to organise social discontent and take demands to the streets means leaving the path clear for disastrous governments like Kast’s.<\/span><\/p>\n How much we can stop Kast is measured by how many trade unions, student, environmental, and social organisations emerge or are strengthened by the rising social unrest; how many unite in joint struggle plans and reclaim the streets in the highest possible number of mobilisations. This is the only path that has worked to this day. Alongside this, it is urgent that the leadership of the CUT and CONFECH break the truce they are granting this government, which has allowed Kast to advance. Grassroots assemblies must be called to discuss and approve a national plan of struggle to halt the government’s brutal attacks, and we must stop trusting the parliamentary manoeuvres of the fake opposition.<\/span><\/p>\n In Chile, the task remains the same. But it is not enough to organise the anger and take it to the streets. We must give it a political expression\u2014an organisation born from the very hands that sustain the mobilisation, to better organise the fight against the far-right and fake progressivism, against capitalism and its devastation, and towards a government by the working class and the people.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Javiera Munita, a leader of MST Chile, a section of the IWU-FI. 13 July 2026. Kast\u2019s electoral triumph, securing 58% of the vote in the second round, shocked national politics. 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