From Street Protests to Kingmaker, Chile’s New Left Comes of Age
- Frente Amplio may hold the key to the second round of voting
- Alliance of 14 parties only formed in January of this year
Confetti falls as presidential candidate Sebastian Pinera waves a Chilean national flag at the party headquarters during elections in Santiago on Nov. 19, 2017.
Photographer: Cristobal Olivares/BloombergAfter the results of Chile’s elections altered the political landscape and raised the prospect of a neck-to-neck race for the presidency four weeks from now, attention is turning to the left-wing coalition that came from nowhere to sweep 20.3 percent of the vote: Frente Amplio.
The alliance of 14 disparate parties formed in January and led by Beatriz Sanchez didn’t win enough to get into the second round, but did gain enough to determine who wins that run-off between billionaire Sebastian Pinera, who garnered 36.6 percent, and Alejandro Guillier from the ruling alliance, who got 22.7 percent.