Johannes Maximilian Kaiser Barents-von Hohenhagen (born 5 January 1976) is a

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

, serving as a national deputy since March 2022, representing the 10th district of the Metropolitan Region of Santiago. Previously a member of the Republican Party, he founded the

National Libertarian Party The National Libertarian Party () is a far-right Chilean political party led by Johannes Kaiser. It was founded by five libertarian members of the national conservative Republican Party in the Chamber of Deputies. Its legalisation process by the ...

in 2024. He is a potential candidate in the 2025 Chilean presidential election. Kaiser calls himself and his movement

reactionary In politics, a reactionary is a person who favors a return to a previous state of society which they believe possessed positive characteristics absent from contemporary.''The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought'' Third Edition, (1999) p. 729. ...

., staunchly opposes illegal immigration to Chile, and supports the right to own firearms in Chile.

Biography

Early life and family history

He was born on January 5, 1976, in

Santiago de Chile Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital city, capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's Chilean Central Valley, central valley and is the center ...

, as the eldest son of Hans Christian (also known as Juan Cristián) Kaiser Wagner and Rosmarie Barents-von Hohenhagen Haensgen, from a family of

German Chileans German Chileans (; ) are Chileans descended from German immigrants, about 30,000 of whom arrived in Chile between 1846 and 1914. Most of these were from traditionally Catholic Bavaria, Baden and the Rhineland, and also from Bohemia in the prese ...

. His paternal grandfather was Friedrich Ernst Kaiser Richter, who arrived in Chile as a

refugee A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...

from Wurtemberg in 1936, escaping

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

after

Adolf Hitler's rise to power The rise to power of Adolf Hitler, dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, began in the newly established Weimar Republic in September 1919, when Hitler joined the ''German Workers' Party, Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'' (DAP; German Workers' Par ...

and before

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He married his wife in April 1939 and settled in Villarrica in

Southern Chile Southern Chile is an informal geographic term for any place south of the capital city, Santiago, or south of Biobío River, the mouth of which is Concepción, about {{convert, 200, mi, km, sigfig=1, order=flip south of Santiago. Generally citie ...

, where he was eventually elected as the 9th mayor of the city, serving between May 1956 and October 1957. His father was active in the National Party, serving as a youth leader. He is the brother of

Axel Kaiser Axel Kaiser (born 4 July 1981) is a Chilean writer, lawyer and political scientist known for his work on classical liberalism and free-market economics. Kaiser is a member of the Mont Pelerin Society and has published articles in Forbes and othe ...

, a Chilean

political scientist Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

known for his work on

classical liberalism Classical liberalism is a political tradition and a branch of liberalism that advocates free market and laissez-faire economics and civil liberties under the rule of law, with special emphasis on individual autonomy, limited governmen ...

and

free-market economics In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ot ...

, Vanessa Kaiser, a former councilor of

Las Condes Las Condes is a commune of Chile located in Santiago Province, Santiago Metropolitan Region. The area is inhabited primarily by upper middle- to high-income families and is known in the Chilean collective consciousness as home to the country's e ...

, and Leif Kaiser, leader of the Chilean Rifle Association, along with three other siblings.

Education and employment

He attended several schools during his early years, including the German School of Santiago and schools in Villarrica and Temuco, as his family moved among these cities. He completed his final two high school years at the Bernardo O'Higgins Military Academy. In 1995, he enrolled in a law degree at the

Finis Terrae University Universidad Finis Terrae () (UFT) is a Chilean university. It is a private autonomous institution in Santiago de Chile owned by the Anahuac University Network The Anahuac University Network is a private universities system grouped and administ ...

in Santiago, which he did not complete, and later traveled to Germany to study at the

Heidelberg University Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is Germany's oldest unive ...

, studies he also did not finish. He later moved to

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; ) is the capital of Tyrol (federal state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the Wipptal, Wipp Valley, which provides access to the ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, where he worked in various temporary jobs, most notably as a freelance sports journalist for the football club

FC Wacker Innsbruck FC Wacker Innsbruck was an Austrian association football club from Innsbruck, Tyrol. History The ''Fußball-Club Wacker'' ("Valiant") ''Innsbruck'' was established in 1915 by Jakob Hanspeter, Benedikt Hosp, Josef Leitner, Josef Albrecht and o ...

. He later attended

Innsbruck University The University of Innsbruck (; ) is a public research university in Innsbruck, the capital of the Austrian federal state of Tyrol, founded on October 15, 1669. It is the largest education facility in the Austrian Bundesland of Tirol, and the th ...

without completing any degree. In September 2013, he created ''El Nacional-Libertario'' (originally with another name), his political YouTube channel with over 100,000 subscribers. In 2017, he campaigned for politician

José Antonio Kast José Antonio Kast Rist (born 18 January 1966), also known by his initials JAK, is a Chilean lawyer and politician. He is running for president in the 2025 Chilean general election, for the third time. Part of the prominent Kast family, he se ...

, and in 2019, he joined the far-right party Kast founded - the Republican Party.

Marriage, relationships and children

In 2022, he married Ivette Avaria Vera, and their daughter (Helena Josefina) was born in 2023. Ivette is 11 years younger than Johannes and was an advisor to the UDI party. They are Orthodox Christians. He has three children.

Political career

In 2021, he returned to Chile to run as a candidate for deputy in the

parliamentary elections A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. General elections ...

for the Republican Party in district no. 10 of the

Santiago Metropolitan Region Santiago Metropolitan Region () is one of Chile's 16 first-order administrative divisions. It is the country's only landlocked administrative region and contains the nation's capital, Santiago. Most commercial and administrative centers are loc ...

. He obtained 26,709 votes, resulting in his election. On November 24, three days after the elections and in the context of the campaign for the second round of the presidential election, José Antonio Kast announced that Johannes Kaiser would be referred to the Republican Party's supreme tribunal to evaluate his membership, due to the controversy that arose after a 2018 video excerpt went viral in which Kaiser sarcastically criticized women's suffrage for those who vote for pro-immigration parties, in the context of the sexual assaults perpetrated in Germany in 2015 and 2016, being labeled as "misogynistic" for this. In response, the elected deputy announced his resignation from the party. Years later, he would explain that he did not ridicule women's voting but criticized people who voted "against their own interests." On March 11, 2022, he assumed office as a deputy, joining the permanent commissions on Human Rights and Indigenous Peoples, National Defense, Interior Government and Regionalization, and Ethics and Transparency. He remained in the Republican Party caucus as an independent, despite resigning from the party. On September 9, 2022, his return to the Republican Party was announced. In the 2023 constitutional plebiscite, Deputy Kaiser announced his vote for the "Against" option but emphasized that he would not campaign out of respect for the party (whose leadership opted for the "In Favor" option), which he honored. Later, the party sanctioned the deputy, removing him from legislative committees for having explicitly voted against the option adopted by the party leadership, which led to his second resignation from the party on January 9, 2024, previously communicated to the party president on January 2. On February 19, 2024, he announced on Radio Agricultura his intention to run as a presidential precandidate and participate in the possible opposition primaries of 2025. On June 7 of the same year, he gathered the signatures to register the

with the Electoral Service of Chile, an act that was made official on the 12th of the same month. Deputies Gonzalo de la Carrera and Gloria Naveillán became founding members of the party, joined by Cristóbal Urruticoechea Ríos and Leonidas Romero Sáez, totaling five deputies. Although Johannes Kaiser was expected to run in the primaries alongside the candidate from

Chile Vamos (Spanish for "Let's go Chile") is a centre-right to right-wing political coalition of three political parties in Chile. The coalition was created on 29 January 2015 by the general secretaries of the Independent Democrat Union (UDI), National Re ...

for the 2025 Chilean presidential election, this option was discarded after that coalition approved the pension reform project. However, Kaiser has expressed his openness to a primary with candidates from the Christian Social Party and the Republican Party.

Electoral history

References

External links

El Nacional-Libertario at YouTube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaiser, Johannes 1976 births Living people Bernardo O'Higgins Military Academy alumni Finis Terrae University alumni University of Innsbruck alumni Independent Democratic Union politicians Republican Party (Chile, 2019) politicians National Libertarian Party politicians Deputies of the LVI Legislative Period of the National Congress of Chile Chilean libertarians Chilean anti-abortion activists Politicians from Santiago, Chile Chilean anti-communists Chilean people of German descent Eastern Orthodox Christians from Chile Chilean political commentators Kaiser family