Chile's reeling right switches presidential candidates again after Pablo Longueira, citing depression, bows out.

AutorWitte-Lebhar, Benjamin

Three months after a financial scandal sank its most-promising presidential candidate, Chile's governing coalition, the Alianza, has been forced to pass the proverbial baton yet again, opting this time for a contender better known for her occasional foul language than for her politics.

The conservative coalition's new banner bearer, Labor Minister Evelyn Matthei, has nearly a quarter century of political experience under her belt but little time left to test her savoir-faire against her leading opposition challenger, former President Michelle Bachelet (2006-2010), a clear favorite to win the country's Nov. 17 election. Interestingly, the two women--both daughters of high-ranking Air Force officers--have known each other since they were children.

At the behest of President Sebastian Pinera, the Alianza cobbled together Metthei's eleventh-hour candidacy in late July after its previous candidate, former economy minister Pablo Longueira, unexpectedly quit the race citing mental-health issues. Longueira is reportedly suffering from clinical depression. "He has had all the necessary and opportune medical attention, but there are moments in life when man proposes and God disposes," Juan Pablo Longueira, one of the candidate's sons, told reporters on July 17. "In that case, one must be humble enough to recognize that there are problems that go beyond what we can cope with."

Longueira was even a late entry into the presidential race. His party, the conservative Union Democrata Independiente (UDI), originally backed one of Longueira's Cabinet colleagues, Laurence Golborne, a former business executive who soared to political prominence during a sensational government-led mine rescue in 2010. Widely hailed as the right's best hope of beating Bachelet, Golborne was riding high in the saddle until late April, when a pair of financial scandals sent his political stock into a sudden nosedive (NotiSur, May 10, 2013). Within days, the UDI dumped the relatively inexperienced Golborne, replacing him with Longueira, a party veteran. Two months later, Longueira narrowly won an intracoalition primary against Andres Allamand of the more moderate Renovacion Nacional (RN). Bachelet won her own coalition primary--held the same day--in a landslide (NotiSur, July 12, 2013).

Disappointed by Allamand's somewhat surprising primary loss, the RN was nevertheless quick to rally behind the victorious UDI candidate.

Party leaders appear to be less enthusiastic about...

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