El Mercurio’s Insights on Governance: A Warning to the Left Amid Challenges for Kast

Original article: Cuando El Mercurio pontifica sobre cómo gobernar 

By Leopoldo Lavín Mujica

The editorial from El Mercurio last Friday regarding Álvaro García Linera is worth examining beyond its critique of the former Bolivian vice president. The right-leaning newspaper associated with Chile’s elite warns against a left that, upon winning an election, might attempt to implement its transformative agenda.

Simultaneously, the paper’s own pages are starting to reflect the challenges faced by the government of José Antonio Kast.

The political realities are impossible to overlook. The economic diagnosis published by the newspaper is striking: growth around one percent, sluggish activity, and employment issues, despite favorable copper prices and a more positive international climate than anticipated.

El Mercurio even questions whether the government is pursuing a “lopsided” agenda, overly focused on the future while neglecting present urgencies. This observation carries significant weight coming from that political sector.

The issue does not begin with Kast or Boric. Since the Transition period, leftist movements have at various times promised profound changes, only to eventually accept the constraints imposed by the model inherited from the dictatorship. The Concertación made undeniable social progress, yet did not alter the fundamental foundations of the economic order.

Afterwards, new generations of the left adopted this critique as a banner only to confront the same difficulties.

The Popular Rebellion of 2019 opened an exceptional opportunity. The generation that subsequently came to La Moneda promised to transcend the model and build a different society. However, the lack of preparation for constitutional defeats and the decisions made by Boric’s government created a renewed gap between change expectations and the actual transformations achieved.

The resulting frustration had political consequences. The right regained ground, and the far-right eventually took control of the government.

The left cannot afford to repeat that history. It cannot merely wait for Kast’s decline to begin crafting an alternative. The program must be developed now, alongside a political alliance ready to defend it.

This is not about creating another electoral platform to win votes only to discover later, from La Moneda, that Congress, markets, businesses, polls, or fiscal responsibility supposedly hinder its fulfillment. That cycle must end. Democracy does not require a political force to relinquish its program upon assuming office. It demands that they gain a majority to implement it while respecting institutional rules.

If the left aims to transform Chile, it must clearly articulate what it wants to change, how it plans to finance these changes, which interests will be affected, and, crucially, whether it is prepared to uphold these decisions in the face of resistance from established powers.

To achieve this, mere candidacy is insufficient. A powerful political force must be built, with consistent leadership, ideological strength, and deep roots in popular organizations. A force capable of uniting workers, residents, students, social and territorial organizations around a common project; one that can contest political power without compromising its convictions and sustain its decisions in the face of historical pressures that have paralyzed the left.

Kast’s situation makes this task all the more urgent. The far-right will exacerbate discontent and will be unable to address the needs for employment, income, pensions, housing, healthcare, and education; these demands will return to the political forefront. But the left cannot arrive empty-handed or with another program destined to be moderated before it begins.

The upcoming struggle should not simply be to reclaim La Moneda. It should be about regaining the capacity to transform. Winning to govern, governing to transform: building from now a political, social, and popular force capable of achieving it.

Leopoldo Lavín Mujica