Chilean Congress. Photo: X/@Reuters.
Conservatives will lead legislative debates during the first year of far-right President Kast.
On Wednesday, the Chilean right-wing assumed control of both legislative chambers after the election of Paulina Nuñez, a member of the National Renewal (RN) party, as president of the Senate, and Jorge Alessandri, a member of the Independent Democratic Union (UDI), as president of the Chamber of Deputies.
Nuñez, a 43-year-old lawyer close to former President Sebastian Piñera, was elected unopposed with 39 votes in favor, two against, and nine abstentions, in an agreement that included the right-wing, socialists, and the Party for Democracy.
Alessandri won with 78 votes to the 75 of independent deputy Pamela Jiles, after the collapse of the cross-party pact that united left-wing, center-left, and Christian Democratic (DC) forces.
With these results, the right wing will lead the legislative debate during the first year of President Jose Antonio Kast, an ultra-right-wing and ultra-Catholic leader. However, in a Congress without absolute majorities, this structure will have to negotiate with the left and center-left.
Chile's most right-wing president in over three decades, Jose Antonio Kast, is sworn in on a promise to tackle surging rates of violent crime and carry out mass migrant deportations, as the country becomes the latest in Latin America to lurch to the right
🇨🇱… pic.twitter.com/gBphXNRHkk— AFP News Agency (@AFP) March 11, 2026
Hours after the legislative renewal, outgoing President Gabriel Boric handed over the presidential sash to Kast, the first Chilean president to openly support the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Kast’s economic team stated that “no immediate contingencies” are anticipated. However, he avoided detailing how the war in the Middle East might impact the new Chilean government’s economic agenda.
Chile’s Failure to Bury Neoliberalism Led to an Overtly Pinochetista President
The new Chilean president will lead a cabinet of 24 ministers, with profiles linked to the private and academic sectors, including two former lawyers of Pinochet. Kast’s arrival marks the first time in Chile’s democratic history that the far right has governed.
(teleSUR)
