Ignacio Dülger

Overview

Ignacio Dülger is a Chilean lawyer and Republican Party (Partido Republicano) politician who serves as an elected regional councilor (CORE) for the Santiago Metropolitan Region (El Ciudadano). He trained as a lawyer at the Universidad de los Andes and built his political career inside José Antonio Kast’s movement: youth-affairs coordinator for Acción Republicana from April 2018, then territorial chief for Kast’s 2021 presidential campaign (La Tercera, El Líbero). In 2023 he ran unsuccessfully as a Republican candidate for Chile’s Consejo Constitucional (Constitutional Council) in the Metropolitan Region (El Líbero).

Regional councilor and the Orrego dispute

As a sitting regional councilor, Dülger became one of the most vocal opposition voices against Metropolitan Region Governor Claudio Orrego. In June 2025 he publicly accused Orrego’s administration of spending more than CLP 3 billion through unjustified direct contracts (24 Horas). This profile reports the figure as Dülger’s own allegation: none of the sources read for it independently confirm the underlying spending. His criticism was one of the opposition councilors’ most public moves against Orrego during 2025 (24 Horas).

On 12 June 2026, in Radio Agricultura’s “La Mañana de Agricultura”, Dülger said his bench had decided to send all the records to the Tricel after the Comptroller’s report questioned Orrego’s management (Radio Agricultura). He said that at a 3 July council plenary, amid high expectation over the report, the governor used the final space to defend himself, but — in Dülger’s view — “no fue una buena defensa”. The report, as described by Dülger, detailed coaching sessions costing more than CLP 31 million where campaign talk happened and Orrego’s figure was highlighted, with the team involved also posting on the governor’s social networks and preparing press points — benefiting “a la persona particular más allá de la institución” (Radio Agricultura). On administrative disorder, he denounced more than 145 agreements signed between 2023 and 2024, of which “104 no tienen real justificación” — some without quotes or supporting documents — with 89 approved by the managers’ committee and 7 by the corporation board, totaling about CLP 1.6 billion (Radio Agricultura). They had the Republican signatures and were awaiting one more to present the requerimiento the following week.

The Tricel later rejected the destitution request against Orrego for notable abandonment of duties and grave faults against administrative probity — a “dura derrota” for the right-wing sector that included the Republicans (La Tercera). The requerimiento had been signed by three parties — the Republicans, the UDI and one RN councilor — and Dülger was “uno de sus principales impulsores” (La Tercera). In a September 2026 La Tercera interview, Dülger — introduced as executive director of Acción Republicana — defended the offensive: the two grave facts presented were the ProCultura issue and the coaching issue, and “el tema grave no era juicio nuestro, era el juicio de la Contraloría” (La Tercera). He acknowledged meeting Orrego several times and having a good relationship, denied any political persecution (“yo jamás lo voy a tratar de corrupto”), and said the requirement was filed knowing they could lose (La Tercera). After the failed action, he said the council had exhausted its instances — oficios, denuncias, commissions — and that it ends there unless new evidence appears (La Tercera).

Presidential adviser and the dual-pay controversy

Early in José Antonio Kast’s presidency, Dülger joined the “Second Floor” (Segundo Piso) of La Moneda Palace as a presidential adviser, working under Alejandro Itarrázaval, while continuing to collect his CORE compensation — alongside fellow advisers Víctor Valdés of the Republican Party and Álvaro Bellolio of the UDI (El Ciudadano). The arrangement broke with Kast’s own campaign “criterio” that executive appointees should not simultaneously hold elected office or draw two public payments (El Ciudadano). La Moneda defended the dual roles on the technicality that councilors receive a “diet” rather than a salary — a payment averaging around 2 million pesos a month under Transparency Law data, provided they attend all sessions (El Ciudadano). Kast himself argued in a CNN Chile interview that there was no double salary because the two roles involve different functions, while conceding he might “take an alternative route” in specific cases (El Ciudadano). The contrast was sharp: presidential chief of staff Catalina Ugarte and ministerial adviser Cristóbal de la Maza resigned their council seats to serve in government, while Dülger and the other Second Floor advisers kept theirs (El Ciudadano).

Leaving the Second Floor to lead Acción Republicana

Dülger served in the Second Floor circle of advisers from March 2026. On 11 August 2026, The Clinic reported that he had communicated his departure from the government: his functions would extend only to 30 August, and from 1 September he would take charge of Acción Republicana, whose website had briefly listed “Director ejecutivo: Ignacio Dülger Castillo” before the reference was removed (The Clinic). The Clinic described the 33-year-old as a founder of the party and one of the militants closest to President José Antonio Kast (The Clinic). Acción Republicana, founded by Kast in 2018, became the political platform from which the Republican Party was founded the following year; it now works on forming leaderships, discussing content and keeping party militancy active in the regions. It had been left headless after executive director Sebastián Figueroa resigned to become subsecretary of Regional Development and subdirector María Jesus Wulf was named Minister of Social Development. The party’s bet on Dülger was aimed at the 2028 municipal elections, when the Republicans will face the challenge of increasing local representation against other right-wing parties (The Clinic).

Inside the Second Floor, Dülger had played a role in the seremi designation process: he was in charge of generating the nexus with the names proposed by the political parties, as part of a team that reviewed requirement compliance and examined each candidate’s background. The process was questioned — 31 seremis had to leave their posts for various reasons (The Clinic). His stint also coincided with Kast’s unfulfilled campaign promise to end the “dobles funciones” and “doble militancia”: the president himself gave the green light for the advisers to keep both roles, saying “si usted dice que tienen doble sueldo, no es así, porque están cumpliendo funciones distintas” in a CNN Chile interview in early June (The Clinic). Other CORE working in the Second Floor included Álvaro Bellolio of the UDI, head of the follow-up unit, and Víctor Valdés, chief of staff to Alejandro Itarrázaval; in late May Bellolio dismissed various advisers, and former UDI senator Luz Ebensperger left the circle after being named ambassador to Uruguay (The Clinic). A September 2026 La Tercera interview already introduced Dülger as “director ejecutivo de Acción Republicana”, confirming the move (La Tercera).

Casa Común and the Cerimedo investigation

In September 2026, El Mostrador reported on the case of Argentine political consultant Fernando Cerimedo — detained in Bolivia, where prosecutors accused him of being the intellectual author of an attack against his ex-partner Nadia Beller (an attempted-femicide case) and of illicit enrichment, charges his defense denies (El Mostrador). Cerimedo directed Numen, a political marketing agency that worked in “Casa Común”, the business command of the Rechazo option during the constitutional process; in that space Cerimedo worked alongside Alejandro Itarrázaval and Ignacio Dülger, who later both arrived at the Second Floor of La Moneda, and with Felipe “Yeti” Costabal, then director of the Secom (El Mostrador). From Dülger’s circle they acknowledged he participated in “Casa Común” but denied he had maintained a close relationship with Cerimedo and rejected that he was behind any anonymous accounts he was linked to (El Mostrador). President Kast denied that Cerimedo had worked for him, although he recognized knowing him; the article stressed there is no conclusive evidence Cerimedo intervened in Chile’s 2025 presidential election (El Mostrador).

What this profile does not claim

This profile’s earlier version described Dülger as the Republican Party’s mayoral candidate for Peñalolén in “October 2026” municipal elections. That claim has been withdrawn: the cited La Tercera article could not be re-read this pass, and no source read this pass confirms any mayoral candidacy, so the profile no longer asserts it. The profile also gives no confirmed vote totals for his 2023 Constitutional Council run or his election as CORE, and it does not assert when his CORE term began — published summaries seen as leads disagree on the start date. The allegation of unjustified spending by Governor Orrego’s administration is reported here as Dülger’s own public statement, not as an independently confirmed finding. The profile does not claim any relationship between Dülger and Fernando Cerimedo beyond their shared participation in Casa Común: Dülger’s circle denied any close relationship or role in anonymous accounts, and no source read for this profile offers conclusive evidence that Cerimedo intervened in Chile’s 2025 presidential election. Three of this profile’s original sources (La Tercera’s Peñalolén piece, El Líbero, 24 Horas) were read for the original August 2026 research pass but could not be re-verified live this pass; claims resting on them are flagged in the source note.