Reading Time: 4 minutesThe newest powerbroker in Chilean politics is an anti-establishment party that defines itself as ni facho ni comunacho (slang for “neither fascist nor communist”) and is the latest political movement in Latin America to ride an anti-incumbent wave to challenge established party systems.
The Partido de la Gente (PDG) finished third in the last two presidential elections, with charismatic economist Franco Parisi leveraging this strong support on social media to get 19% of the vote last November. The PDG’s support in Congress has been critical as Chile’s right-wing President José Antonio Kast is on the verge of passing his most critical economic reform bill, the Plan de Reconstrucción Nacional, which aims to revive Chile’s sluggish economic growth by boosting investment through corporate tax cuts and slashing red tape.
After months of congressional negotiations, the Senate approved the bill on August 5. The lower house had initially passed it in May with PDG support. The party’s lawmakers later opposed several Senate amendments but ultimately backed the proposal, clearing it for the final Senate vote.
Parisi founded the PDG in 2019, and outperformed expectations in the 2021 election despite campaigning entirely from the United States because of child support issues in Chile. In the following years, Parisi has continued to build a social media following by railing against the country’s political class, telling voters in the 2025 campaign: “My opponent has no surname. It is the establishment because it takes opportunities away from people.”
