Yes, it did have a lot to do with the protests. Before october, as a mayor he was very well liked in his city, one of the politicians in the country with the best favorability ratings. He implemented succesful policies to give housing and medicine to people. But he was still a "small city mayor". No one would consider him a a posible presidential candidates, and meanwhile the politicans with the best polling as a candidate were hard right wingers. Along came the protest and there is a huge backlash against the right wing, most right wingers took a popularity hit, but the traditional center and center-left parties couldnt capitalize from the protests because they are seen as complicit in this neoliberal system (20 years in power and didnt changed anything), so there was a vacuum for an "antisystem outsider candidate" and Jadue, who was already very liked started jumping up the polls.
Yes, it did have a lot to do with the protests. Before october, as a mayor he was very well liked in his city, one of the politicians in the country with the best favorability ratings. He implemented succesful policies to give housing and medicine to people. But he was still a "small city mayor". No one would consider him a a posible presidential candidates, and meanwhile the politicans with the best polling as a candidate were hard right wingers. Along came the protest and there is a huge backlash against the right wing, most right wingers took a popularity hit, but the traditional center and center-left parties couldnt capitalize from the protests because they are seen as complicit in this neoliberal system (20 years in power and didnt changed anything), so there was a vacuum for an "antisystem outsider candidate" and Jadue, who was already very liked started jumping up the polls.