Chile’s presidential election has been big on musical and other surprises, from a 72-year-old candidate’s ill-advised foray into rap to a Javier Milei-style metal track created with AI.
Here are three quirks of Sunday’s race to succeed outgoing left-wing President Gabriel Boric.
– ‘Danke schoen’ –
A full three of the four leading candidates in the presidential race — far-right candidate Jose Antonio Kast, his ultra-right competitor Johannes Kaiser and Evelyn Matthei, a mainstream conservative — are of German origin.
Matthei broke into German during the final candidates’ TV debate on Monday.
“Danke schoen (Thank you),” she said, blushing after the burly Kaiser, 49, presented her with a rose for her 72nd birthday.
Around half a million of Chile’s population of nearly 20 million people have German ancestry, according to various estimates.
Most German immigrants arrived in the 19th century, lured by a Chilean plan to populate the country’s remote, forested south.
Others arrived after World War II, including Paul Schaefer, the notorious founder of a brutal German-themed cult, Colonia Dignidad.
Matthei’s family arrived in Chile in the 19th century but Kast’s father, who was a member of Hitler’s Nazi army, emigrated to Chile after the war.
Kaiser’s paternal grandfather, on the contrary, fled Hitler’s Germany because of his leftist political leanings, according to Kaiser’s brother Axel.
A style moniker of the anti-migrant Johannes has drawn attention, however.
He wears German Iron Cross cufflinks — a symbol of the German military.
– AI to look like Milei –
Kaiser has styled himself as a libertarian in the mold of neighboring Argentina’s President Javier Milei.
To underscore his ideological proximity to the Argentine rocker, his campaign released a heavy metal song entitled “Defend the Truth.”
“Defend the truth with strength and courage, defend the truth against the leftist and the traitor,” an unseen frontman sings over the screech of a guitar.
But while the lyrics were recorded by real-life campaign activists, the instruments were generated by AI, his team confirmed to AFP.
Kaiser isn’t the only candidate to ask AI for inspiration.
Leftist candidate Marco Enriquez-Ominami, who has barely registered in polls, used AI to create his not-very-subtle campaign ad.
It features Kast as late military dictator Augusto Pinochet, Matthei in the cockpit of an airforce jet that bombs the Moneda presidential palace (inspired by real events of Pinochet’s 1973 coup) and Kaiser as a tank commander.
– Evelyn from the hood –
The candidate who has arguably attracted the most ridicule on the campaign trail is former minister Matthei, who was persuaded to play a scowling rapper in a TV campaign jingle attacking her rivals.
“I’m not Kast, I’m not Jara, I’m Evelyn, looking ahead,” a woman sings as 72-year-old Matthei stares at the camera, arms folded, flanked by dancers.
Social media panned the song’s dubious rhyming and Matthei’s unblinking gaze.
Kast called it “a terrible mistake” on the part of his rival.
“I regret that she stooped so low.”
axl/cb/des