Popular Front (Chile)

The Popular Front in Chile was an electoral and political left-wing coalition from 1937 to February 1941, during the Presidential Republic Era (1924–1973). It gathered together the Radical Party, the Socialist Party, the Communist Party, the Democratic Party and the Radical Socialist Party, as well as organizations such as the Confederación de Trabajadores de Chile (CTCH) trade-union, the Mapuche movement which unified itself in the Frente Único Araucano, and the feminist Movimiento Pro-Emancipación de las Mujeres de Chile (MEMCh).

Since 1935, the Communist Party advocated a Popular Front strategy, in agreement with the Comintern's directions and in hope of succeeding in winning elections as in Spain and France. With this aim in mind, the Communist Party toned down its revolutionary discourse, advocating compromise with "bourgeois democracy" and supporting industrial development of the country. On the other hand, the Socialist Party remained skeptical towards such an alliance, and entered the Popular Front only when the electoral victory of the right-wing candidate, Gustavo Ross, seemed inescapable.

The Popular Front presented the Radical Pedro Aguirre Cerda as their common candidate for the 1938 presidential election. He narrowly defeated the right-wing candidate. Following Cerda's death in 1941, the left-wing coalition developed into the Democratic Alliance which united the same parties for the 1942 presidential election.

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