José Antonio Kast Rist (; born 18 January 1966) is a politician who has served as the president of Chile since 2026.
He served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 2002 to 2018, representing districts in the Santiago Metropolitan Region. Kast was a member of the Independent Democratic Union (UDI) until 2016, after which he became an independent, later founding the Republican Party (PRCh) in 2019, serving as its leader until 2026.
Kast ran for president three times: in 2017, as an independent close to the far-right, finishing fourth; in 2021, winning the first round but losing the runoff to Gabriel Boric; and in 2025, winning the runoff against Communist Party candidate Jeannette Jara, achieving the highest vote share since Chile's return to democracy and carrying all regions in the process. He resigned from the Republican Party shortly before taking office on 11 March 2026.
Kast and his political movement are considered broadly right-wing, with his administration described as the most conservative government since Pinochet. His administration - a self-described "emergency government" - has focused on deregulation, cutting taxes, and a hard-line policy against illegal immigration.
José Antonio Kast was born in Santiago into a German family. His parents, Michael Kast Schindele (1924âÂÂ2014) and Olga Rist Hagspiel (1924âÂÂ2015), were originally from Bavaria. His father served as a lieutenant in the German Army during World War II and was a member of the Nazi Party.
Kast's father emigrated to Chile in December 1950, settling in Buin. His mother and two siblings followed in 1951. In 1962, the family founded Cecinas Bavaria, a small sausage business that became the foundation of their wealth. The couple had ten children, three of whom predeceased their parents.
His brother Miguel Kast (1948âÂÂ1983) was an economist who held posts under the military regime of Augusto Pinochet, including Minister of Labor and president of the Central Bank of Chile. José Antonio Kast is also the uncle of former member of the Chamber of Deputies Pablo Kast (born 1973), former senator Felipe Kast (born 1977), and member of the Chamber of Deputies Tomás Kast (born 1979).
Kast studied law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, where he became involved with the ' (Guildist Movement). He ran for president of the university's student federation (FEUC). As a student, he appeared in a campaign ad for the "Yes" vote in the 1988 Chilean national plebiscite, supporting an eight-year extension of Augusto Pinochet's rule.
In 1989, before being admitted to practice law, he co-founded Kast, Pinochet, De La Cuadra & CÃÂa., a law firm, and later directed a family-owned real estate company in the 1990s. He taught civil law and commercial law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile's Institute of Economics.
Kast graduated with a Bachelor of Laws in 1990. His undergraduate thesis was titled "Freedom of association and assembly, freedom of the press, and suffrage in José Victorino Lastarria Santander." He was admitted to the practice of law by the Supreme Court of Chile in 1991.
During his university years, he was elected to the Superior Council and ran as a candidate for the presidency of the Federation of Students of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (FEUC) representing the Guildist Movement. In that election, constitutional lawyer Patricio Zapata, a member of the Christian Democratic University movement, was elected. He also participated in the student council of the School of Law of the PUC, where he met Jaime Guzmán, who encouraged him to join the Independent Democratic Union (UDI).
In 1996, he ran in the municipal elections as a candidate for mayor of Buin, Chile, located south of the Santiago Metropolitan Region. After placing second, he assumed office as municipal councillor, a position he held between 1996 and 2000, during which time he also served as ceremonial mayor.
In 2001, he ran as a candidate for Deputy for the 30th District, comprising the communes of Buin, Calera de Tango, Paine, and San Bernardo in the Metropolitan Region, and was elected with the highest vote share for the 2002âÂÂ2006 legislative term. During this period, he served on the Standing Committees on Education, Culture, Sports and Recreation, and Family, as well as on special committees related to disability benefits and youth affairs.
In 2005, he was re-elected for the same district for the 2006âÂÂ2010 term. During this period, he participated in several standing and special committees, including Education, Family, Government Affairs, Youth, and an investigative committee on the creation of the criminalistics career.
In 2007, he was elected by his fellow UDI deputies as head of the party's parliamentary caucus in the Chamber of Deputies and was unanimously re-elected in 2008. That same year, he ran for the presidency of the UDI, obtaining 36% of the votes in the party's internal election.
In December 2009, he was re-elected Deputy for the 2010âÂÂ2014 term. He served on the standing committees on Education, Sports and Recreation, Health, and Economy, Development and Tourism. In 2011, he was again elected head of the UDI parliamentary caucus and, on 30 March 2012, assumed the position of Secretary General of the UDI for a two-year term.
After withdrawing his pre-candidacy for the Senate in Santiago East in the 2013 elections, he ran as a candidate for Deputy for 24th District, comprising the communes of La Reina and Peñalolén, and was elected for the 2014âÂÂ2018 term, succeeding MarÃÂa Angélica Cristi.
In September 2015, he announced his intention to run in a presidential primary within the Chile Vamos coalition. On 31 May 2016, he resigned from the UDI in order to pursue an independent presidential candidacy.
In 2017, after gathering the required number of signatures, he registered his independent candidacy for the presidency of Chile. In the first round of the presidential election, he placed fourth with 7.93% of the vote. Following the first round, he endorsed Sebastián Piñera for the runoff election.
He completed his term as Deputy on 11 March 2018, at which point he held no elected public office.
On 18 August 2017, Kast registered his independent candidacy with 43,461 signatures. His support came from right-wing, conservative, libertarian, nationalist, and retired military groups. He campaigned on a platform of "less taxes, less government, pro-life" and anti-illegal immigration measures.
His support for the former dictatorship was controversial, especially his proposal to pardon convicts over 80 with age-related illnesses, including those convicted of human rights violations. He received 523,213 votes (7.93%), finishing fourth, outperforming polls that showed only 2âÂÂ3% support. In the runoff, he supported the eventual winner, Sebastián Piñera. He stated, "[In today's world,] Chileans need God," and proposed making religion teachers available in public schools.
In 2018, Kast announced his intention to run in the 2021 presidential election. This time he ran under his own Republican Party. He formed the Christian Social Front pact with the Christian Conservative Party. His proposals included pardoning elderly former Pinochet officials, banning abortion, merging the Ministry of Women, withdrawing from the United Nations Human Rights Council, and building more prisons.
In May 2019, Kast founded the think tank Republican Ideas, and in June, he established the Republican Party. He opposed the 2019 protests, calling them acts of violence by "terrorists". As protest approval waned, he gained support from Chileans weary of the unrest.
In the 2020 referendum on a new constitution, he campaigned for "Reject," which received 21.72% of the vote; the change was approved with 78.28%. In the 2021 Chilean Constitutional Convention election, his party formed a joint list, Vamos por Chile, with the center-right coalition . The list won 20.6% of the vote. Kast's proposed candidate, Teresa Marinovic, won a high percentage of votes, helping several others enter the Convention via the D'Hondt method.
His slogan, "make Chile a great country," drew comparisons to Donald Trump's Make America Great Again, with supporters wearing MAGA apparel at his events. His proposal to dig a moat along the ChileâÂÂBolivia border has been compared to U.S. President Donald Trump's support for a wall along the MexicoâÂÂUnited States border. He skipped the primary, won by Sebastián Sichel. After the first debate, Kast surpassed Sichel as the leading right-wing candidate. He won the first round with nearly 28% of the vote, advancing to a runoff against Gabriel Boric. He then secured endorsements from most of Chile's right, including President Sebastián Piñera. Internationally, he signed the Madrid Charter, a document authored by Spain's far-right Vox party, alongside figures like Rafael López Aliaga, Javier Milei, and Eduardo Bolsonaro. In late November 2021, he met in Washington, D.C., with Senator Marco Rubio, the Chilean ambassador to the OAS, and American business executives.
On 18 December, former candidate Franco Parisi endorsed Kast after an internal party consultation.
In the 19 December runoff, Kast received 44.13% of the vote, losing to Boric's 55.87%. He conceded and promised "constructive collaboration." He was the first candidate since 1999 to lead the first round but lose the runoff.
On 29 November 2024, the Republican Party confirmed Kast as its candidate for the 2025 election, running under the Change for Chile coalition. In June 2025, he was endorsed by withdrawn candidate Francesca Muñoz and in August, he officially registered his campaign under the slogan La fuerza del cambio ("The Strength of Change"). His campaign focused on institutional renewal, public order, and economic recovery. Campaign pledges included building ditches on the northern border, mass deportations of illegal migrants, and constructing maximum-security prisons. Additionally, Kast made the Venezuelan refugee crisis a central element of his political campaign, and promised strict border enforcement and large-scale deportations.
Kast finished second in the first round on 16 November with nearly 24% of the vote, advancing to a runoff against Jeannette Jara. He received endorsements from Johannes Kaiser, Evelyn Matthei, and the Chile Grande y Unido coalition. Kast won the runoff on 14 December with over 58% of the vote, securing victories in all sixteen regions. His vote share was the second-highest since the transition to democracy, and his 7.2 million votes were the highest total in Chilean history.
Kast was inaugurated as President of Chile on 11 March 2026. He assumed office without an absolute majority in Congress and will need to form coalitions with right-wing and centrist parties. The Senate is evenly divided, and the balance of power in the lower house rests with the populist Party of the People.
Kast has characterized his administration as an emergency government, focused on addressing what he describes as urgent national crisesâÂÂparticularly public security, economic stagnation, and irregular migrationâÂÂwhile deferring other political concerns. His cabinet has been described by El DÃÂnamo as technocratic, with 16 of the 24 posts filled by non-party members; all cabinet members were also required to undergo hair drug testing. The cabinet notably includes two former defense lawyers for Augusto Pinochet and Jaime Campos, a member of the center-left Radical Party.
As president-elect, Kast warned undocumented migrants that he would deport them if they did not leave before he took office. In response, Peruvian President José Jeràdeclared a state of emergency along the southern border with Chile to stem an influx of undocumented migrants, primarily Venezuelans, who were attempting to leave Chile following Kast's threats of mass expulsion.
Following his election, Kast confirmed his intention to reside at La Moneda Palace, the seat of the presidency in central Santiago, together with his wife PÃÂa Adriasola. He is the first president to live in La Moneda since Carlos Ibáñez del Campo in the 1950s.
During his first week in office, Kast launched talks with the United States on collaboration in rare-earth mineral mining. He also commenced construction of a border wall along Chile's frontier with Peru. A disaster recovery bill submitted to Congress included corporate tax cuts for large and medium-sized firms from 27% to 23%, an employment subsidy, and the elimination of property taxes for senior citizens. His administration also suspended 43 environmental regulations, ending various restrictions on power plant emissions and smelting pollution.
He announced his cabinet on 20 January 2026.
Internationally, Kast has links with other right-wing figures including support from Donald Trump. He is a founding member of the anti-communist Madrid Forum, having signed the Madrid Charter.
A supporter of Israel, Kast has accused President Gabriel Boric of antisemitism, labeling his administration's critical stance toward Israel as 'ideological and irresponsible'.
Following the 2026 United States strikes in Venezuela, Kast defended the operation, and said that the capture of Nicolás Maduro was "great news for the region".
In early February 2026, then President-elect Kast went to Europe, where he visited the Transatlantic Summit and held meetings with the European Conservatives and Reformists Group and MEPs from Patriots for Europe. The visit did not include official meetings with European Union institutions.
Kast married MarÃÂa PÃÂa Adriasola on 20 December 1990; the couple have nine children. He is a practicing Roman Catholic and a member of the Schoenstatt Movement.
Before becoming President, Kast lived with his family in Paine, a suburban commune to the southeast of central Santiago.