MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Tohá resigns as Interior Minister to run for Chile's presidency

“The time has come to undertake another political struggle,” Tohá said

Carolina Tohá Tuesday turned in her resignation as Chile's Minister of the Interior to focus on her presidential bid, she announced.

Tohá joined Boric’s government on September 6, 2022, replacing Izkia Siches after a major political setback in the Constitutional Convention vote. Her tenure shifted the administration’s focus to security, a priority Boric praised during her farewell. Later that evening, Tohá confirmed her 2025 presidential run, emphasizing her extensive experience in triumphs and challenges, declaring, “I am ready.”

After a 28-minute gathering, President Gabriel Boric thanked Tohá for her work and appointed Álvaro Elizalde as her replacement, while Macarena Lobos will temporarily fill Elizalde's previous role as Minister Secretary of the Presidency (Segpres).

The former congresswoman and former mayor of Santiago is a key figure in the Democratic Socialism coalition, who joined Boric's cabinet on Sept. 6, 2022, replacing Izkia Siches, and after the crushing defeat of Apruebo in the Constitutional Convention, on which the government relied a large part of its political capital. She stayed in office for 910 days.

The 59-year-old politologist made her decision after former two-time President Michelle Bachelet hinted she would not be seeking a third term at La Moneda. Tohá's candidacy embodies a return of the leftwing coalition from Boric's young blood friends, such as Giorgio Jackson and Camila Vallejo, to once again bet on a historical figure of Democratic Socialism.

“The main priority of our government is security, and this task was tenaciously led by Carolina. Since September 2022, in a difficult moment, she assumed the Ministry of Interior and worked tirelessly with dialogue, constancy and firmness,” said the president in a ceremony that ended with a hug from Tohá to the entire cabinet. She would not announce her presidential candidacy until the end of her farewell ceremony.

“The time has come to undertake another political struggle, which is to run for the Presidency of the Republic. I have had to participate in many triumphs, resounding triumphs, but also in defeats. I have been part of hopes and also of advances,” Tohá said.

“I have not lacked the stumbles in which I have had to participate as well. I have been in moments of abundance, in moments of scarcity, and all those moments can be summed up in one concept, which is the concept of experience,” she added.

“I want to put all that experience at the service of Chile at this stage, and I believe I am ready to do so,” she concluded.