Beatriz Sánchez (journalist)
Beatriz de Jesús Sánchez Muñoz is a Chilean journalist and politician. She has worked in radio and television since the 1990s.
She was the Broad Front's nominee for the 2017 presidential election, after winning the left-wing coalition's primaries on 2 July 2017.
Sánchez represents a new Chilean political left, which has been represented since the return to democracy by the Concertación and Nueva Mayoría. A new constitution, a new pension system to replace the existing scheme of mandatory contributions to private pension funds, nationalisation of mining resources such as copper, as well as water companies, free public education at all levels, universal healthcare, higher taxes on the wealthy and sector-wide collective bargaining are some of the main policies of the political coalition.
In the November 19th General Election, Beatriz Sánchez reached over the 20% of the popular vote, surprising the traditional political parties, who thought that she would not pass the barrier of the 9%, as polling by CEP, one of Chile's top polling firms, predicted. Sánchez's result was the best performance by a candidate of the radical left since the transition to democracy and she came within 150,000 votes of finishing ahead of New Majority candidate Alejandro Guillier to qualify for the second round. Also, the Broad Front won 21 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and Senate combined, something unprecedented for a political coalition with less than a year of existence.
