The Presidential Republic - 1944 Chilean Presidential Election

[Lumine]

From left to right: von Marees, Cruz-Coke, Schnake and Lafertte

October 1944 - In a four way race, who can reach La Moneda?

Prelude: After a polarizing term characterized for domestic modernization and law and order politics (but a slow economy), President Gustavo Ross has built on Alessandri's accomplishment and consolidated Chilean democracy despite failing to have the Nazis and the Communists banned. With the center-right and the center-left being taken by storm by dynamic men, and the PCCh and VN - formerly the MNS - presenting candidates of their own to protest against their near ban, will the center-right hold the line for a third term?

The Presidential Candidates:

Eduardo Cruz-Coke (PCon) - Alessandri and Ross's former Minister of Health and now a Senator, Cruz-Coke has taken the center-right by storm by riding a popular - some say populist - wave of support, arguing that it is time for the center-right to advance into a more social agenda. Supported by the Liberals, Conservatives and Agrarians and a committed social-christian, the young and charismatic Dr. Cruz-Coke (45 years old) runs on a platform of supporting President Ross's modernization and law and order politics, while calling for morality-based politics, anti-communism (yet opposing the ban), breaking relations with the Axis powers but remaining neutral, and extensive social programs to combat poverty, inequality and social ills.

Óscar Schnake (PS) - Just as young as Cruz-Coke, Senator Óscar Schnake is seen as the dynamic face of the Socialist Party even after a split in the party, and has been embraced as the candidate of the center-left by the Socialists, Democrats and the Radicals. Embracing part of the spirit of Aguirre Cerda, Schnake is calling for steady transformation into democratic socialism, running on a platform of limited nationalization, expansion of the state to support development, industrialization and social programs, economic protectionism, declaring war on the Axis and staunch anti-communism (supported the ban), seeking to dissociate the center-left from totalitarian leanings.

Elías Lafertte (PCCh) - Outraged at Schnake's Socialists for supporting the ban, the Communists have decided to join forces with trade unions and the Popular Socialists - a splinter faction - of Allende and Ampuero, and thus presented their own candidate for President to attempt to rally the "true-left". Selecting 58-year old Senator Elías Lafertte (former salpeter miner and two times Presidential candidate) as their candidate, the Communists and their allies are running on anti-fascism, war with the Axis and a close alliance with the Soviet Union, large scale industrialization and nationalization, expansion of the trade unions and repeal of Alessandri and Ross's "repressive policies".

Jorge González von Marees (VN) - The Chilean Nazis having rebranded themselves as "National Vanguard" and taken on a more nationalistic tone, they haven chosen to fight the election on the own - with support of most Ibañistas - under their leader (El Jefe) Deputy Jorge González von Marees. A strident orator and the youngest candidate (44 years old), von Marees is attempting to rally both against the "liberal aristocracy" and the "radical marxists", pledging to support a non-racial Chilean version of fascism, a pro-Axis neutrality in the war, a corporativist and protectionist economic agenda, and an authoritarian and anti-liberal "national government" that will fight for the working classes.

Two days.

[Intell]

Lafertte.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Lafertte.

[H. Ross Peron]

Schnake

[Former President tack50]

Cruz Coke

[Wikipedia delenda est]

Schnake

[Lumine]

One day in, and the Communists are ahead in a stunning partial result.

[Kingpoleon]

Schnake. Socialist-Liberal-Radical-Democrat coalition is ideal.

[PSOL]

Lafertte, the PS power-play of removing the demographic opponent is disgusting.

[Lumine]

1944 Presidential Election

October 1944 - Óscar Schnake becomes Chile's first Socialist President

Presidential Vote:

Óscar Schnake: 33.3%
Eduardo Cruz-Coke: 30.6%
Elías Lafertte: 25.0%
Jorge González von Marees: 11.1%

Six years after the second landslide in a row - first Alessandri, then Ross - the 1944 Presidential contest turned to be far more competitive than what many expected, even to the point of leading the nation into an enormously tense process in which Chilean democracy itself was said (accuratedly or not) to be at risk.

Defeated at the 1941 Congressional elections and despite the failure to have the Nazi and Communist parties banned there remained significant hope at La Moneda that a third term for the center-right could be won on account of President Ross's partial accomplishments and the sheer division of the opposition, but what should have been an orderly process to select a candidate soon turned into strife. Whereas the Conservatives had fell in love with Dr. Cruz-Coke and the potential to have their first president in over one hundred years, the Liberal Party itself was notoriously skeptical of the candidate and his religious fervor, and while Cruz-Coke was nominated with President Ross's support a significant Liberal group stayed on the sidelines or refused to endorse him.

As the right was going through its own drama, so was the center and center-left forces that had united to capture the Presidency. With Socialists, Radicals and Democrats having won 42% of the vote in 1941 they felt confident in victory after nominating Schnake and developing a government program despite notorious infighting and division within the three parties after the failed Democracy and State Security Law (which Schnake had notoriously endorsed), and more importantly, the separation of the Popular Socialist in a split which soon became stronger than what Schnake and the PS leadership had envisioned. Even if the militant anti-communism of Schnake made it possible for the coalition to make a strong play towards the center and towards disaffected Liberals, it had the exact opposite effect for many voters on the left.

Enter von Marees and Lafertte. Whereas a bombastic von Marees and his National-Socialist cadres took to the street rallying against both Cruz-Coke and Schnake and found enormous success on a populist-nationalist campaign - which catapulted VN into an increasingly stronger force even as the Axis Powers collapsed -, Lafertte and his coalition of Communists, Popular-Socialists and independent leftist forces proved far more organized and skilled than Schnake could have believed. Backed with the powerful oratory of the popular poet and deputy Pablo Neruda and the constant support of the increasingly coordinated trade unions Lafertte led a passionate campaign across the mines, fields and industries, and when a couple of months before the election the Communists won a by-election for a deputy seat all hell broke loose.

Soon the possibility of Senator Lafertte actually reaching first place became realistic, starting an open panic in the Cruz-Coke (in free fall) and Schnake (stagnant) campaigns. Both candidates resolved to fight back with support of most of the press, denouncing a possible Lafertte victory as the "end of democracy" and asserting that Chile was in the risk of falling to totalitarian rule. Dr. Cruz-Coke in particular managed to rebound in the final days to a close second place, but still behind the already low result of the center-right in 1941. With von Marees and Lafertte on 11% and 25% (and a combined 36% for both political extremes), it was Schnake who managed to claw ahead in an extremely close contest.

Óscar Schnake was now Chile's first Socialist President.