According to La Tercera, Socialist Party (PS) Senator Juan Luis Castro distanced himself this Wednesday from a possible third presidential bid by former President Michelle Bachelet. In his view, another run by her would not help bring forward new leadership on the left.
Castro, a senator for the O'Higgins Region, spoke on the podcast Cómo te lo explico with journalists Mónica Rincón and Paula Catena. So far, no other outlet has confirmed the remarks.
The senator acknowledged Bachelet's "indisputable role in bringing people together". However, he questioned her signals: "She always leaves something trickling out. I won't call her ambiguous, but I do think she leaves questions open for the future."
For Castro, the PS must field its own candidate and not leave that role "to the Broad Front or the communists, or others." He also maintained that it is "far too early to say that socialism already has a presidential candidate for 2030". He added: "It would be ideal to have renewal, to have new figures."
The senator described a "political tandem" between Bachelet and President Gabriel Boric, whose task, he said, is to unite the different factions. But he ruled out another run by the president. "We should not go for a Boric 2030 bid," he said. According to Castro, the Broad Front (FA) "had its moment," and Boric made a mistake by staking everything on the first constitutional process, which failed.
Castro also said he would support a Socialist candidate running directly in the first round, because he believes primaries have become less reliable as predictors of results. He also asked why Bachelet did not explicitly endorse Carolina Tohá (PPD) in the last presidential election. In his view, the former president preferred former Communist minister Jeannette Jara.
He mentioned another "wound" within the PS: the request that party president Paulina Vodanovic remove a photo with Bachelet during the 10 days that Vodanovic was seeking the nomination.
The second dispute was with Tohá, the former Democratic Socialism candidate. The former minister argued that former Lautaro member Juan Aliste Vega should not have died in prison, and that people convicted of human rights violations should not die there either. Castro disagreed. He said those convicted should die in prison and that Tohá's distinction "is neither appropriate nor consistent" with the nature of crimes against humanity.
He went further. He argued that pardons "should no longer exist at this point", because, he said, they have lent themselves to "political abuse" and moved away from their original purpose, intended for terminally ill people.
