Far-right, pro-Israel candidate José Antonio Kast will become the next president of Chile after winning the second-round voting on Sunday with 60% of the votes.
Son of a former Nazi official, Kast will replace a Chilean administration led by Gabriel Boric, a vocal critic of Israel and the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to the point of stopping diplomatic relations months after the October 7 attacks.
Kast was one of the main opponents of Boric’s foreign affairs policy, and promised during his campaign that he “would rectify the mistakes made by Boric,” which he called “whims” and “tantrums” on more than one occasion.
“Chile's foreign relations are too relevant to prioritize the whims of a President over the interests of the Nation. Boric, once again, evidences his antisemitism by leaving Israel out of FIDAE [Santiago’s international air show], in an irresponsible and markedly ideological decision,” he posted on X in March 2024.
His pro-Israel stance was seen once again on October 7, when he assured that the Hamas attack “deserves our complete and unequivocal condemnation. No cause justifies these brutal crimes.”
He also called “Boric’s decision to recall the Israeli ambassador to Chile for consultations a new shame for Chile,” pointing out that the Hamas terrorist group celebrated the decision.
After Iran's attack on Israel in April of 2024, Kast said, "Iran launches a drone and missile attack on Israel. They could be the same drones that it gifted to Bolivia to monitor our borders. Chile has a serious national security problem, and we have a weak and inexperienced government to face it."
Finally, in September 2022, he warned that “Chile's foreign relations are in serious jeopardy thanks to the President's tantrums,” after Boric “insulted Israel over the death of a guerrilla terrorist who died in a confrontation.”
Chilean media reported that in 2008, Kast was part of the delegation of Chilean politicians that traveled to Israel and even visited the holocaust memorial museum of Yad Vashem.
Kast managed to win the elections in Chile while keeping his pro-Israel advocacy in a country known for having the biggest Palestinian diaspora outside of the Middle East, with an estimated 500,000 Palestinians and their descendants living nowadays in Chile.
Kast's family and his father’s role as a Nazi official
Michael Kast's, father of the Chilean president-elect, role as a Nazi official was already known in Chile, but gained international interest after his son went on to become one of the main candidates to take the presidency in the country.
A report by the Associated Press (AP) showed documents that proved Michael Kast’s (Kast's father) military service under Nazism during the Second World War.
An ID card shared by AP showed that an 18-year-old named Michael Kast joined the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, or NSDAP, in September 1942, at the height of Hitler’s war on the Soviet Union.
German officials confirmed the card's authenticity to The Guardian. The report also mentioned that Kast himself rejected the claims that his father was part of the Nazi party, saying instead that he joined the army under forced conscription.
“When there is a war and [military] enrollment is mandatory, a 17 or 18 year old doesn’t have the option to say, ‘I’m not going,’ because they will be court martialed and shot to death the very next day,” The Guardian reported that he said in 2018.
Kast’s father emigrated to Chile after the Second World War and lived there for the rest of his life, until he passed away in 2014 at the age of 90.