The presidential election in Chile is scheduled to take place on November 16, with a probable second round on December 14, and is expected to bring a fierce dispute between known names of national policy and debuting candidates. Among them is Johannes Kaiser, deputy and leader of the newly created National Libertarian Party (NLP), who presents himself as an anarchopitalist and conservative alternative, in line with the style of Argentine President Javier Milei, which has made Kaiser receive the nickname “Chile Milei”.
According to the latest survey of the Cadade Institute, released on August 24, Kaiser has 7% of voting intentions in the first round and appears as the main novelty of the right field. In presidential expectations, 6% of Chileans believe he could reach the presidency, a remarkable rise for those who debuted in national politics a few years ago.
Who is Johannes Kaiser
Strong opponent of Chile’s current left -wing government, led by Gabriel Boric, Kaiser, 49, was born in Santiago and is a descendant of Germans. He gained projection as a commentator on social networks, which boosted him to national politics.
In 2022, the libertarian was elected deputy for the 10th district of the Metropolitan Region of Santiago and has since joined the national defense committees, human rights, interior and ethical government, as well as participating in interparlation groups about Brazil and Germany.
His political trajectory to Parliament began linked to José Antonio Kast’s Republican Party, but after divergences during the constituent process, Kaiser left Kast’s caption and founded last year the NLP, which quickly gathered thousands of supporters. Currently, the acronym bets on the next elections to consolidate itself as an alternative from the conservative and liberal right in Chile.
Ideas for a possible government
Kaiser’s presidential program emphasizes three central axes: combating irregular immigration, strengthening internal security and reducing state size. Kaiser defends economic reforms to encourage private enterprise and streamline the job market.
Like Javier Milei, with whom he is often compared, Kaiser bets strongly in the use of social networks and direct communication with voters to spread their ideas. The libertarian has presented himself as a candidate who seeks to break with traditional politics and offer Chile a path of greater individual autonomy and less state intervention.
In an interview with CNN From Chile last week, Kaiser announced that, if elected, he should extinguish ministries and cut about 200,000 public office. According to the libertarian, these posts today serve only to “accommodate politicians without any qualification for functions.”
In the economic area, the Chilean candidate proposes to make labor rules more flexible. Its program provides for “different minimum wages according to productive areas” and the creation of a lower and more transient salary floor for young people without experience, with the declared goal of “reducing informality”.
In the social area, Kaiser said in CNN Who wants to “turn Chile into the best place in the world to be a mother,” proposing vouchers for day care centers (direct subsidiation to the family to use in public or private units).
Another central proposal of the libertarian is to create, if elected, a sovereign background – inspired by the Norway model – to finance the universal guaranteed pension (PGU), benefit paid to elderly 65 years or older, conditioned to residence and income criteria and aimed at ensuring a minimum retirement floor. The background would be fed by the mining royalty (taxation on the extraction of Chilean minerals) and the partial privatization of states such as Codelco (copper) and ENAP (oil), which would have private majority control, while TVN – Chilean public broadcaster – would be “totally privatized” or delivered to workers. For Kaiser, this arrangement, besides serving to create the background, would prevent politicians from continuing, in his words, “getting his hand in the pocket of the Chileans.” According to Kaiser, politicians use state companies in the country for party purposes.
Out of the dispute?
The surveys indicate that the presidential race in Chile is polarized at this time between José Antonio Kast (28%), from the right, and communist candidate Jeannette Jara (27%), while Evelyn Matthei, from Centro-right, appears in third place (14%). Kaiser at this time still runs out, but bets on growing in the coming weeks and consolidating himself as a viable alternative to the voter. The candidate recently said that in his polls he appears with 10% votes.
