SANTIAGO (Dispatches) –
Gabriel Boric Font, a 36-year-old leftist politician, was inaugurated on Friday as Chile’s new president, the youngest to hold the office, for the period between 2022 and 2026.
A former student leader, and legal and social sciences graduate from the University of Chile, Boric was sworn in along with his cabinet during a ceremony at the National Congress in Valparaiso, about 100 km from the capital Santiago.
“I am deeply proud of this cabinet, deeply proud that there are more women than men, thanks to the feminist movement. Let us never, never forget that we are indebted every day to the people of Chile,” he told the new cabinet.
As the biggest presidential vote-getter in Chilean history, Boric also made history by choosing an unprecedented cabinet filled with youth, feminists and environmentalists.
He took office amid the economic and health crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a historic constituent process in the South American country to replace the Constitution that dates back to the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.
Boric is also a supporter of Palestine and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against the Zionist regime, which has sparked concerns in the occupied territories.
An article by Rai al-Youm in December last year stressed that Boric’s election win “represented a model for generalizing ‘the global hatred against Israel’.
It said a number of Israeli analysts and observers had “warned of the danger of Boric’s election and its repercussions” on the Zionist regime not only because of his support for Palestine but also due to his condemnation of the regime for perpetuating genocide against Palestinians.
Citing Israeli journalist Amnon Lord’s article published in Hebrew-language daily Israel Hayom, it said the victory of Boric is considered “a bad news for Israel because the radical left in South America …considers them [the Jewish] servants of the Israeli imperialism, and, with the passage of years, the countries of South America have become opponents of Israel, and in which slogans that say that Israel is pursuing a policy of racial segregation against Palestinians are promoted.”
Boric had campaigned on the promise of installing a “social welfare” state, increasing taxes and social spending in a country with one of the world’s largest gaps between rich and poor.
Branded a “communist” by his detractors, Boric in his first official address pledged to “expand social rights” in Chile, but to do so with “fiscal responsibility.”