Who is Gabriel Boric, the leftist millennial leader set to be Chile's youngest president?

35-year-old Gabriel Boric, the leftist former student leader, on Sunday (December 19) created history by becoming Chile's youngest President-elect. The streets of Santiago erupted in celebration after Boric unexpectedly bagged a victory over his far-right rival in a polarising race. Boric won with 56% of the votes, while 55-year-old José Antonio Kast trailed with 44%.

The elections in Chile were preceded by nationwide protests sparked in 2019 following a rise in subway fares in Santiago. Protests spread across the country in no time, with anger towards increasing inequality, cost of living and privatisation being the core focus of agitation. 

Gabriel Boric capitalised on this public outrage and campaigned on the promise of installing a "social welfare" state, increasing taxes and social spending in the country. Following Sunday's historic win, tens of thousands of Boric supporters took to the streets of Santiago and other cities, shouting "Viva Chile!"

Branded a "communist" by his criticisers, he pledged in his first official address to "expand social rights" in Chile but to do so with "fiscal responsibility."

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So who is Gabriel Boric? Born in Punta Arenas in 1986, Boric's was involved in student activism from his high school days. While studying law at the University of Chile in 2011, he was chosen as the student union's president. However, he did not complete his degree. Instead, he won the election to Chile's Congress in 2013 and completed two terms as deputy.

Boric belongs to a revolutionary generation of student leaders who are determined to bury dictator Augusto Pinochet's bitter legacy once and for all. After narrowly losing the first presidential round to Jose Antonio Kast, a far-right supporter of General Pinochet, Boric moderated his programme, which appealed to the centrist voters. 

Gabriel Boric was not a prominent political figure in national politics in Chile and an unexpected presidential candidate. According to a  Reuters report, Boric just reached the threshold of 35,000 signatures needed to be a candidate. Boric, however, beat out the popular Santiago-region mayor, Daniel Jadue, of the Communist Party, to lead the leftist alliance.

A large percentage of Gabriel Boric's supporters are Chile's youth, who effectively used the power of social media to garner massive support for the young leader both online and on-ground. Kast accepted defeat and reportedly called Boric to congratulate him on becoming president-elect after the vote count.

Gabriel Boric, who addressed thousands of supporters on Sunday following his win, said, "We are a generation that emerged in public life demanding our rights be respected as rights and not treated like consumer goods or a business…We no longer will permit that the poor keep paying the price of Chile's inequality."

"The times ahead will not be easy…Only with social cohesion, re-finding ourselves and sharing common ground will we be able to advance towards truly sustainable development – which reaches every Chilean," Boric, who will take office in March 2022, added.

• Chile
• Gabriel Boric