MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile: Presidential candidate Tohá dating Minister Marcel

Boric was never kept in the dark, Tohá explained

Former Chilean Interior Minister and presidential hopeful on behalf of the Democratic Socialism coalition, Carolina Tohá, admitted during an interview this weekend that she was romantically involved with Finance Minister Mario Marcel. It all began gradually in 2022, during her first year as a Cabinet member, she explained. Their professional bond dates back to the 1990s when Marcel was her boss.

Tohá emphasized that their relationship, which became public due to her candidacy, remains private, with President Gabriel Boric Font in the know from the start. Despite public interest, she hopes to keep it personal. Tohá, a mother of two, was previously married to Fulvio Rossi from 2005 to 2010.

“In the course of these years we have been friends, we have worked together many times,” she reckoned. However, the relationship changed when Tohá replaced Izkia Siches as Interior Minister in September 2022. “This began the first year I was minister. It happened little by little, very gradually... it wasn't overnight,” she noted.

Tohá also admitted that their affair with Marcel “remains private.” However, given her candidacy, “people want to know more about me, [so] I tell them.”

“But it is still in the personal sphere,” she insisted.

“We have been a couple for some time,” she explained. “He was my first boss in 1990.” And, later on, “we have been friends, we have worked together many times...,” Tohá insisted. “Now we have this relationship that I hope we can continue to take care of [it] and solidify” it, she pointed out.

“We have tried to keep this on a private level,” Tohá conceded. “Traditionally, Chile has always recognized the boundary between the private and the public, and that is something that I value very much and that has helped to take care of this relationship,” she went on.

Tohá also mentioned that Boric was never kept in the dark. “I told him myself, and Mario also told him. It was not something hidden. Many people knew about it. Publicly, we went out together, but we never made an announcement. We didn't think it was appropriate. We wanted to handle it in a very personal sphere. And although now it is known more publicly, we hope it will continue to be like that.”