Gabriel Boric
Gabriel Boric is a Frente Amplio politician and president of Chile.
Contents
History
Boric emerged as a leader of the 2011 student protests, and won an independent seat in Congress. Shortly afterwards he founded Movimiento Autonomista (MA, Autonomist Movement), which in 2018 became Convergencia Social (CS, Social Convergence). This party was a founding member of Frente Amplio.
Ahead of the 2021 presidential elections, Frente Amplio formed a joint list with Chile Digno. Known as Apruebo Dignidad, a unified primary selected Boric as their nominee. He then won the December 2021 elections against José Antonio Kast of the Republican Party. (He placed second in the first round, but of course won the runoff).
The first several years of his term were preoccupied with carrying out the spirit of the October 2020 constitutional plebiscite. The Constitutional Convention had already been elected and a second referendum on their draft constitution was planned for September 2022. Contrary to expectations however, the Political Constitution of the Republic was rejected by a large margin in this vote. In May 2023, mandatory elections were held for a new Constitutional Council. Rightist parties led by the Republicans won a three-fifth, veto-proof majority in this body. Both of these outcomes were considered major defeats for the Boric government. However, the public also rejected the new draft in a December 2023 plebiscite.
In 2024, Boric applied for Chile to join the RCEP.