SANTIAGO – Franco Parisi, a populist economist who made a surprising impact in Chile’s recent presidential election by securing third place, finds himself at the center of political attention.

According to Parisi, the aftermath of last weekend’s election has been a whirlwind. He recounted to The Associated Press how his phone has been buzzing incessantly with calls from both ends of the political spectrum: left-wing government officials and right-wing opposition leaders. Even in a restaurant, he was approached by a former Cabinet minister, eager to gain his favor.

The reason for this sudden popularity is clear: both sides are vying for the support of the crucial 20% of voters who backed Parisi. These voters could tip the balance in the upcoming Dec. 14 runoff election between the two leading candidates: Communist Jeannette Jara and her hard-right opponent, José Antonio Kast.

However, Parisi remains firm in his stance. “I’m not talking to either of them because I don’t trust them,” he stated, expressing his distrust towards both Kast and Jara. “They don’t believe in common sense. They believe in ideology,” he added, dismissing any possibility of aligning with either candidate.

“I’m not talking to either of them because I don’t trust them,” the political outsider said of Kast and Jara. “They don’t believe in common sense. They believe in ideology.”

In the vote on Nov. 16, Jara, the former labor minister in the center-left government of President Gabriel Boric who campaigned on expanding Chile’s social safety net, won 26.9%.

Her main challenger, Kast, an ultraconservative former lawmaker whose campaign harnessed fears over rising crime and illegal immigration, followed close behind with 23.9%, setting up Chile’s most polarized presidential runoff since the return of democracy in 1990.

Parisi took a surprising 19.7%, corralling voters angry about a lack of economic opportunity in one of Latin America’s most prosperous but unequal countries and eager to punish the elite on both the left and the right. His Party of the People — a motley crew drawn from across the political spectrum — secured 14 out of 155 seats in the divided lower house of Congress.

Kast looks poised to win the runoff, especially if a good number of Parisi’s 2.5 million votes go his way.

With his supporters key to deciding the presidential runoff and his party members holding sway once a new administration takes over, Parisi, a prominent YouTuber (host of a show called “Bad Boys Who Make the Elite Uncomfortable”) has a sudden clout. But he says he won’t do anything with it — not even in exchange for control of key ministries.

“I’m secluded in my house right now, not answering calls,” he said in a Zoom call from Chile’s capital of Santiago.

‘Neither communist, nor fascist’

Within minutes of the election results, the fourth- and fifth-placed candidates, radical libertarian Johannes Kaiser and establishment center-right contender Evelyn Matthei, gave Kast their endorsement.

But Parisi balked when asked on Saturday whether Kast would scoop up his votes, saying, “No way, no how.”

With the country obliging all citizens to vote, Parisi predicted most of his supporters would cast invalid ballots on Dec. 14 to protest their bad options.

“Null votes, blank ballots, that will be the big shadow of this election,” he said.

Employing his campaign slogan — “neither communist, nor fascist” — Parisi said his shock electoral success underscored that “people in Chile feel like the politicians from the left and from the right, both the communists and the fascists, are taking advantage of them.”

His mention of fascism refers to the contentious family past of Kast, whose German-born father belonged to Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party and whose brother served in the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

While sharing Kast’s capitalist principles, Parisi said he doubted that the veteran politician hailing from Chile’s privileged elite would change the country’s concentration of market power in the hands of the few. In recent days, Kast’s campaign has brought on key financial officials emblematic of Chile’s conservative establishment who backed Matthei in the first round.

Parisi said he also worries that a Kast government would “restrict some individual freedoms,” citing the devout Catholic candidate’s fierce opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion, even in cases of rape.

Jara, born and raised in Conchalí, a working-class neighborhood in Santiago, is no better for her humble origins, Parisi argued, citing her career climbing the ranks of the hard-line Communist Party.

“That’s the traditional party structure in Chile,” he said. “You have to be a soldier, so you can become a lieutenant, then a general, so you can get more power, more privilege.”

He described Jara as “a really nice person,” but said he feared her state-led economic vision would hamper entrepreneurism.

Representatives for Jara and Kast did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Chilean voters trapped between left and right

A well-known campaign video during Parisi’s first presidential bid in 2013 shows him dressed in a sharp-looking suit and shined shoes pulling up to a ramshackle Santiago neighborhood in a Porsche. He knocks on an older woman’s door, and, to her surprise, asks her for work — to hire him to be her president.

That clip says everything about Parisi’s man-of-the-people ethos and appeal to Chileans who feel neglected by the political and economic system, experts say, a disillusionment now evident in elections across the region.

In that sense, said Patricio Navia, a Chilean political scientist at New York University, Parisi’s supporters — perhaps ironically — resemble voters for New York’s Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who vowed to transform government to restore power to the working class.

“Parisi’s supporters like going to the mall, they want to own a house, they like capitalism,” Navia said. “But they feel like there isn’t a level playing field, that they’re being left out, that the model is tilted against them.”