Frente Amplio
Frente Amplio (Broad Front) is a political party in Chile.
Contents
History
The precursors to the party were grassroots movements which had rejected the label of the predominant leftist party. Boric and Giorgio Jackson had emerged as leaders in the 2011 student protests, and both won independent seats in the 2014 general elections.
In 2016, plans for an alliance to contest the 2017 presidential elections were made. Boric's Movimiento Autonomista (MA, Autonomist Movement), Jackson's Revolución Democrática (Democratic Revolution), and several other parties joined into the Frente Amplio. While Beatriz Sánchez won 20% of the vote share in the first round, this was insufficient to qualify for the runoff.
The alliance then underwent a severe consolidation. Boric reorganized the MA and merged with several other parties in 2018 to establish Convergencia Social (CS, Social Convergence). Similarly, Comunes was founded by mergers in 2019. This reorganization was in preparation to reform the alliance into a durable body. Not all constituent parties cooperated; notably the Partido Ecologista Verde (PEV, Green Ecologist Party) exited in 2019.
In 2021, the alliance formed a joint list as Apruebo Dignidad with Chile Digno, an alliance led by the PCCh. Boric won the alliance's primary to stand in the 2021 presidential election. He placed in second in the first round, but won the runoff.
Now serving as the governing coalition, the constituent parties held referenda and merged into a singular party in 2023.