The president who, in the midst of the crisis due to the pandemic, laments that Thalía, Eugenio Derbez or Chicharito Hernández speak against him, is not the same president who, on the day of his inauguration, called the entire country on a huge crusade to change Mexico. On the night of victory and in the first act of government in Congress, Andrés Manuel López Obrador invited the country as a whole to take charge of the situation of the poor. For the good of all, he said, it was convenient to give priority to fighting corruption, inequality and social injustice. And to achieve this, he offered leadership in favor of forgiveness, unity, love, transparency and solidarity.
That was 17 months ago. Today their flags remain the same, but the president seems to have modified the ways to achieve it. What seemed like a consensus-oriented strategy ended up becoming a pulse between the presidency, on the one hand, and most power factors, on the other.
It is not clear if the path of confrontation is a design of strategy or simply was the result of the personality of the National Palace tenant. To fight, you need two, of course, and the president never lacked enemies. He had them before and after taking possession. But it was his decision to make his adversaries the main interlocutor of his Government. The words "conservatives, neoliberal, adversaries" were taking over his speech to the detriment of "solidarity, poverty, social justice". The space dedicated to responding to critical newspapers and columnists, and in general to their enemies, began to be a mandatory part of the menu of the daily conference, the famous Morning. The statesman who sensed the day of the election, gave way to a pugnacious promoter of his own project.
A week ago I pointed out in this space that the impossibility of the elites and a part of the middle sectors to understand López Obrador resides in the fact that they inhabit different universes. The Tabasco man speaks from deep Mexico, the one that was not able to insert itself into the tip sectors and was increasingly left behind in modern and distorted Mexico, activated by globalization.
In his inaugural speech, AMLO presented himself as the bridge to unite these two Mexicos for the benefit of the poor. Unfortunately, his own tendency to confrontation contributed to torpedo those intentions and ended up throwing into the arms of the radicals many who granted him the benefit of the doubt.
The cancellation of the new airport, which could be justified for ecological and budgetary reasons, was compounded by other disagreements that could have been avoided if they had been approached with more left hands. The presidential plane raffle, a day without women or the economic strategy against the coronavirus, are topics in which he ended up confronting those who may have been allies. It seems that, at this and other junctures, the President has been more inclined to show the strength of his will than to add, negotiate and convince other power factors.
It seems to me a mistake, first because it coincides or not with them, they are a reality. For years, wealthy Mexico ignored oppressed Mexico; now it would be absurd to claim the reverse. And second, because in this confrontation it seems to me that López Obrador overestimates the weight of the Presidency. He probably has the strength not to be shot down, considering the weakness of the opposition political parties, but the possibility of real change involves the participation of many other actors. We live in a globalized world and in a market society. A smart presidency can introduce nuances to that market to make it less unequal and relatively fairer. For this, it needs the complicity of the factors that affect productive activity. Very little will be accomplished through confrontation and force; her longed-for fourth transformation could be a minuscule version of herself.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador would have to decide what is most important to him: win one more round of his opponents, over and over again, or do something decisive and lasting for the poor. Because there should be no doubt, the massive transfer that he seeks for the benefit of those who have less, will remain in marginal subsidies if it is not accompanied by real and balanced growth in employment. Something that the government alone is incapable of generating. And the changes made in the Constitution or in the budget do not guarantee anything either; experience shows that just as they entered, so they can leave the hands of another regime.
I still think that López Obrador's flags are correct. Many of the lessons that the covid-19 crisis is leaving the world, point to the need for a fairer, more self-sufficient, less subordinated reorganization to the wild action of the market. Most Mexicans, I suppose, do not want the reinstatement of the old order of corruption and inequality that previous governments protected. But neither does it want the installation of a new model based exclusively on the will of the president, convinced that all his ideas are non-negotiable because they come from the people.
I want to think that the point of no return has not been reached. This Government has more than four years to live. It is enough for López Obrador to put the presidential band back on, leave Benito Juárez and the bronze phrases alone for a while, get out of the polarized bubble he has gotten into, populated with flatterers in the Mañanera and adversaries " perverse ”the rest of the day, and begin to govern with all the good, bad and regular social actors with whom this country has had the luck to man. López Obrador can never be the statesman he wants to become, as long as he continues to worry day after day about what Loret de Mola, Derbez or the Reformation do and stop doing and the enemies that in his opinion are behind them. He thinks that history will have to judge him for what he wanted to do, even when his adversaries eventually stop him; but it's not like that. You will be judged on the success or failure to realize the historic opportunity you had in your hands.
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