José Antonio Kast will face progressive former student leader Gabriel Boric in runoff election next month.

Chile’s right wing have claimed a jubilant victory after José Antonio Kast, a former congressman with a history of defending the Pinochet dictatorship, secured a surprise win in the first round of the country’s presidential election.

Kast, who campaigned on a platform of public order, migration controls and conservative social values, confounded expectations to take 28% of the vote and beat the progressive former student leader Gabriel Boric by two percentage points.

But the result is a bracing reality check for the Chilean left after two years in which the country has followed a broadly progressive trajectory.

As he took to the brightly lit stage on Sunday night, he had regained some of the composure that had deserted him before the vote, presenting the runoff election as an existential fight against “the intransigent left”.

And his vision for Chile has found a solid foil in Gabriel Boric, a former student protest leader who has served two terms in congress since being elected in 2013.