1. Evelyn Rose Matthei Fornet was born on 11 November 1953 and is a Chilean politician, who served as mayor of Providencia, a commune in Santiago, from 2016 to 2024.
41 Facts About Evelyn Matthei
1. 2.
Evelyn Matthei previously served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1990 to 1998 and as a senator from 1998 to 2011.
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Evelyn Matthei is currently a candidate for president of Chile in the 2025 presidential election.
4.
Evelyn Matthei was born in Santiago de Chile, the second child of Elda Fornet Fernandez of Spanish descent and Fernando Evelyn Matthei Aubel, a military officer of German descent.
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Evelyn Matthei was raised a Lutheran, and her father was a noted minority in the largely Catholic Pinochet junta.
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Bachelet later became president of Chile, and in 2013, Evelyn Matthei ran against her for the presidency.
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In 1974, Evelyn Matthei began studying at the Economics Institute of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, where she earned a licentiate in Economics after four years.
8.
Evelyn Matthei was recognized as the top economics student of her graduating class.
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Evelyn Matthei started her career as a professor of International Economics at the Economics Institute of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.
10.
Evelyn Matthei returned to teaching at the Catholic University, this time as a Professor of Introduction to Economics.
11.
Evelyn Matthei entered Chilean politics in the late 1980s, after the military government relaxed control over political activity.
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In 1987 Evelyn Matthei joined National Renewal, a conservative party that supported Augusto Pinochet's government.
13.
Evelyn Matthei was a member of the party's Political Commission.
14.
Evelyn Matthei became a public face of the "Si" campaign in favor of Augusto Pinochet in the 1988 plebiscite on his continued rule.
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Evelyn Matthei appeared in political broadcasting as a representative of RN to discuss better job opportunities for skilled workers through technical training brought on by Pinochet.
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Evelyn Matthei's father was the first military official after the vote to recognize the outcome.
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Evelyn Matthei defeated Joaquin Lavin of the Independent Democratic Union, a later political ally.
18.
Evelyn Matthei supported Hernan Buchi's failed presidential run along with her party in the concurrent presidential elections, along with her party.
19.
Evelyn Matthei drafted the law that legalized organ transplants in Chile, after a series of consultations with lawyers, priests, and doctors to discuss the legal, ethical, and scientific ramifications of the project, and followed these with a two-hundred person seminar where the issue was debated publicly.
20.
Pinera adopted the more moderate position in the party, while Evelyn Matthei aligned with the populist right of Jarpa.
21.
For example, they aimed to demonstrate that Evelyn Matthei professed Catholicism but did not practice it.
22.
Likewise, and prior to this sentence, Evelyn Matthei endorsed Cuadra's statements, and supported him in the legal proceedings against him.
23.
Evelyn Matthei called for a boycott of English and Spanish industries in 1998, due to the arrest of Augusto Pinochet in London.
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In 1999, Evelyn Matthei joined the Independent Democratic Union, after being elected to the senate in 1997 representing the Coquimbo Region.
25.
Evelyn Matthei resigned from her seat in January 2011 when she was appointed Minister of Labor and Social Security by President Sebastian Pinera.
26.
Evelyn Matthei replaced Camila Merino in the ministry and was replaced by Gonzalo Uriarte in the Senate.
27.
Evelyn Matthei supported domestic workers along with many academics against abuse from rich homeowners in Chicureo, a region like her party's typical base.
28.
Evelyn Matthei did however compare her politices that of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Bachelet's to that of the former East Germany, where Bachelet lived in exile from Pinochet.
29.
Evelyn Matthei's views have shifted over time, but she has always been described as center-right, existing in the political middle.
30.
Evelyn Matthei noted for her combative yet candid approach to politics.
31.
Evelyn Matthei frequently has made herself the target of self-deprecating jokes.
32.
Evelyn Matthei has been able to develop a persona outside her "technical self" through her charisma.
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Evelyn Matthei believes immigration is an issue of public order and empathy, but has continued to drive a hard line against President Boric.
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Evelyn Matthei opposes significant structures being built at ports of entry.
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Evelyn Matthei supports appointing a crime czar, but has argued that Bukele-style crime policies would not be legal under Chilean institutions.
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Evelyn Matthei has described active government deregulation as the depoliticization of the economy, criticizing the interventionist policies of President Boric.
37.
Evelyn Matthei has maintained since redemocratization a belief in the prosecution of human rights violation and criticized the denial of such atrocities.
38.
Evelyn Matthei is married to fellow economist Jorge Desormeaux Jimenez, with whom she has three children.
39.
Evelyn Matthei is Catholic, like her mother, but her husband is Lutheran.
40.
Evelyn Matthei has said she has explored Buddhism and says she has her house embrace a policy of religious relativism.
41.
Evelyn Matthei is a classically trained pianist, and speaks English and German as well as her native Spanish.