Former student leader who was elected President of Chile at the age of 35: Who is Gabriel Boric?

Gabriel Boric Font was born on February 11, 1986. Boric's father, whose ancestors immigrated to Chile from the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1897, is of Croatian origin.

After graduating from The British School in his hometown, he moved to Santiago in 2004 and started studying at the University of Chile, Faculty of Law. While on the faculty, he led a 44-day protest against Dean Roberto Nahum in 2009.

In 2012, he became President of the University of Chile Student Federation, and as a student leader, he was one of the leading figures in the 2011-2013 Chilean student protests. He was included in the list of Chile's 100 young leaders.

Gabriel Boric Font (born 11 February 1986) is a Chilean politician serving as the president of Chile since 11 March 2022. He previously served two four-year terms as a deputy in the Chamber of Deputies.

He was unable to obtain a law degree and has revealed in interviews that he never considered a career as a lawyer. Boric was elected as an independent candidate to the House of Representatives in 2013, representing the Magallanes and Antarctic region.

He served on the Human Rights and Indigenous Peoples Commissions. He entered parliament as a member of the Broad Front in 2017 and received the highest number of votes. After the civil uprising in Chile in 2019, he participated in the negotiations that led to a referendum to change the constitution from the reign of dictator Augusto Pinochet.

In the 2021 primaries, he was chosen as the presidential candidate of the Apruebo Dignidad Coalition, consisting of the Broad Front, the Communist Party, and other smaller movements. Boric, who received 60% of the votes in the primaries, defeated José Antonio Kast with 55.9% of the votes in the second round of the presidential elections held on December 19, 2021, and became the president elected with the highest number of votes in Chilean history.

He became the youngest president in Chilean history and the second youngest in the world. Gabriel Boric Font defended the new constitutional draft presented to him by the constitutional convention in July 2022. The 388-article constitution, which is progressive, respects gender equality, defends the right to the environment, and promises to protect local rights, was rejected by voters by 62 percent to 38 percent in the referendum held in September 2022.

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