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El Ciudadano

Original article: Eduardo Frei a los pies de Kast busca un lugar en el nuevo gobierno

The former president deepened his rift with the DC party by endorsing right-wing policies and offering to serve as an international collaborator.

Just days before José Kast’s administration officially begins, Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle symbolically distanced himself from the center-left by supporting the use of military forces and trenches in the north. In an interview with Radio Pauta, the ex-president claimed that the country is ‘stalled’ and that leftist solutions have failed across the region, making himself available to the new government for diplomatic roles in Asia.

This shift towards the far-right is not an isolated incident, but rather the culmination of a long-standing trend where Frei prioritizes his comfort in power over party principles. As early as 2018, during Sebastián Piñera’s presidency, he served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary in a Special Mission for the Asia-Pacific, while remaining silent about the appointment of Luis Castillo as Undersecretary of Assistance Networks in the Ministry of Health, who has been accused of concealing the autopsy of his father, Eduardo Frei Montalva.

Furthermore, his family life has also been marked by betrayal, stemming from the theft of his assets by his own brother. Francisco Frei Ruiz-Tagle was sentenced to five years in prison for defrauding the former president out of more than 1.5 billion pesos, employing false signatures and deceit to empty the accounts of the family company, Inversiones Saturno, for over a decade.

During the 2025 presidential campaign, Frei’s photo alongside José Kast cut deep within the Christian Democracy (DC) party, where his colleagues oppose this newfound rapport with the government. Senator Francisco Huenchumilla stated categorically that this relationship with factions that champion the dictatorship ‘injures the historical memory’ of the former president’s father, accusing him of seeking any excuse to definitively align with conservative sectors.

Despite efforts to expel him, the ex-president clings to his party membership, asserting that ‘at this stage of my life, I am not going to change or leave the party.’ This stubbornness is causing paralysis within the Christian Democrats, who are uncertain how to deal with a historical figure who celebrates the construction of border trenches.

In response to the crisis, some factions within the DC are trying to ease tensions, such as Deputy Jorge Díaz, a candidate for the presidency of the party, who promised to withdraw the cases against the former president in the Supreme Court, claiming that bringing Frei to this instance ‘has generated unnecessary tension and projected a wrong political signal,’ he stated.

Thus, Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle navigates between his party’s scrutiny and the hope for a new appointment in Kast’s government. His trajectory illustrates that, far from the mystique of ‘Young Fatherland’ supporting his father, the former president prefers the refuge of trenches and agreements with the right.

La entrada Eduardo Frei Aligns with Kast, Seeking a Role in the New Government Amid Controversy se publicó primero en El Ciudadano.