End of presidential campaigns in Mexico: “It’s time for women”

The final stretch of the presidential pre-campaigns in Mexico This week begins for the ruling party and the opposition with a result that seems foreseeable: those elected between now and September 6 will be women.

“It is transformation and it is time for women,” the former mayor of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum, proclaimed on Saturday before thousands of supporters gathered at the central Monument to the Revolution, in the penultimate act of her internal campaign. Launched in mid-June, her campaign culminated this Sunday in Veracruz (east).

Sheinbaum, 61, is the favorite along with former Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard in the race for the presidential nomination of the National Regeneration Movement (Morena, nationalist left), which has held power since 2018.

Starting Monday, a national poll will define between the two rivals – and four other minor candidates – the candidate to succeed López Obrador, very popular, but prevented from being re-elected by Mexican law. Morena will announce the results on September 6.

Ebrard waited until Sunday to gather some 15,000 supporters in an arena in the capital. His closing campaign included an hour of danceable music, by the Sonora Dinamita orchestra, and less than 30 minutes of the candidate’s speech.

“We want a better country, we want security (…). We want six million more jobs. In 2030, we want the middle class to be older,” said Ebrard, who entered the stage with his wife, whom he kissed, in an event that contrasted with the sobriety of the Sheinbaum rally.

– A contentious internal –

Sheinbaum launched a call for “unity” after accusations by Ebrard of having financed his pre-campaign with public funds.

“Everybody talks about unity. Nothing more than they comply with what was agreed, ”the former foreign minister declared ironically on Friday.

Insistent rumors suggest that he could leave Morena and join the opposition if he does not win the poll that begins on Monday.

Both intend to capitalize on the political heritage of López Obrador, with close to 60% approval after almost five years in office.

With barely nine years of existence, his party is the majority in both chambers of Parliament and governs 23 of the 32 Mexican states.

“It’s an honor to be with Obrador,” Sheinbaum chanted to the crowd on Saturday, also replicating verbatim phrases from the outgoing president: “For the good of all, the poor first,” “our economy is strong, our finances are healthy,” among others. .

Acknowledging “the great work that my friend AMLO” (an acronym for President Andrés Manuel López Obrador) has done, Ebrard vowed to take his legacy “to the next level,” a phrase he has used as a campaign slogan.

– The awakening of the opposition –

On the opposition side, the right-wing senator Xóchitl Gálvez is the favorite in the poll that confronts her with another woman, Beatriz Paredes, from the PRI party, previously hegemonic.

Of Otomí indigenous descent and of popular origin, Gálvez received the support of a pillar of the right-wing PAN party, Santiago Creel, also a candidate who declined in his favor.

Symbol of the awakening of an opposition that was weakened and divided, Gálvez has become a target of attacks by López Obrador since the launch of his candidacy in June.

The opposition survey will be carried out from this Sunday until Wednesday, prior to a citizen consultation on September 3. That same day the results will be announced.