Colombia, the ultra-right in the lead in the first round of the presidential elections

Against all odds, the representative of the Colombian ultra-right, Abelardo De la Espriella, won the first round of the Colombian presidential elections and will go to the runoff against the left-wing candidate, Ivan Cepeda, on 21 June.

De la Espriella, a lawyer with no political experience and not bound to the traditional parties, obtained 43.7 per cent of the vote against the government candidate's 40.92 per cent; Cepeda for his part disputed the results, claiming that many voters were moved from their seats at the last moment and could not vote.

In reality, Cepeda - and President Gustavo Petro - are paying the price for a rather high abstention rate (the turnout stopped at 57%) and the general climate of distrust towards the traditional parties: the candidate of the right-wing government of former President Alvaro Uribe, Paloma Valencia, stopped at 6% of the preferences when the polls gave her 14%.

Taking into account the fact that Uribe has already given his endorsement to De la Espriella, the latter becomes the favourite for the run-off: no one knows exactly what his actual programme is, beyond an announced rapprochement with Donald Trump's US, but what struck the electorate was his figure as a successful professional untethered from politics - a scenario already seen in other South American countries and beyond.

The result is a divided country that will experience three weeks of extreme polarisation before a presidential term that - whoever the winner - is unlikely to heal the divisions.