Catholic Republican defeats communist in Chilean presidential election

Julieta Villar and Walter Sánchez Silva, ACI Prensa/Catholic News Agency

Wednesday, December 17, 2025

José Antonio Kast, who had finished in second place in the general election to Communist Party opponent Jeannette Jara, reversed the result in the Dec. 14 runoff election to become the new president-elect of Chile. Kast is a practicing Catholic and belongs to the Schönstatt Apostolic Movement. He has been married since 1991 to María Pía Adriasola Barroilhet, with whom he has nine children. The president-elect has expressed his support for “life from conception to natural death.”