Chileans react to Boric's election victory

After street celebrations wrapped up, concession and victory speeches were delivered, and world leaders congratulated the winner of the presidential runoffs, everyday Chileans reacted Monday to what they believe a Gabriel Boric administration could mean for the country.

Boric on Sunday handily defeated his opponent, far right lawmaker José Antonio Kast, and at age 35 was elected Chile's youngest modern president.

Esteban Mundaca, a local resident, said he's thrilled with the election results, saying that the winning candidate's ideas are more "in accordance with what the majority thinks."

Another local resident, Maria Isabel, said she hopes things are done in a respectful and democratic fashion.

Former leftist student leader Boric will be under quick pressure from his youthful supporters to fulfill his promises to remake Chile after the millennial politician scored a historic victory in the country's presidential runoff election.

Boric spent months traversing Chile, vowing to bring a youth-led inclusive government to attack nagging poverty and inequality that he said are the unacceptable underbelly of a free market model imposed decades ago by the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

In his speech, the bearded, bespectacled president-elect highlighted the progressive positions that launched his improbable campaign, including a promise to fight climate change by blocking a proposed mining project in the world's largest copper producing nation.

He also called for an end to Chile's private pension system — the hallmark of the neoliberal economic model imposed by Pinochet.

It's an ambitious agenda made more challenging by a gridlocked congress and ideological divisions recalling the ghosts of Chile's past that came to the fore during the bruising campaign.

During his Monday press conference, Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he reached out to Boric to congratulate him.

IMAGE: AP