Don't give me up for dead is the cry of fashion in the gray summer of Mexican politics.
The sighs are on the loose.
After the midterm elections, Andrés Manuel López Obrador has given the flag of the presidential succession game and Marcelo Ebrard has been the last, until now, to say that he does want to be a candidate and succeed Andrés Manuel in 2024. The covered, that rude Contest of ambitions for power, it sounds again as it had not felt since the so-called PRI imperial presidency disappeared.
The first day that Claudia Sheinbaum received shouts of "President, President", Chancellor Ebrard was in Paris, a place of his exiles. It was the first of July. That night, in the National Auditorium, the head of government of Mexico City saw her little plant watering towards the uncovering and it flourished. In contrast, Mario Delgado, identified as few with Marcelo, was loudly booed by those who gathered to celebrate the three years of AMLO's triumph in 2018. The whistle of the ebrardista did not go unnoticed in the French capital.
Last Sunday, Claudia and Marcelo tied cards. The first put one of its first mega-works of public transport into operation, in the impoverished north of CDMX. Two swallows can make summer: when starting a cable car, the boss was greeted, again, with the cry of the president-president. But Ebrard had already closed the distance. Back in Mexico, he chose a non-claudist territory, the capital of Mexico, to meet with his people and tell them that he is going, that he is not dead, that he is resurrecting.
The Marcelist conclave of Toluca was well armed. Cell phones are supposed to be prohibited, but not all, because a saint who is not on instagram is not venerated and Ebrard allowed himself to be photographed so that there would be proof that he is covered and moves. Twenty-four hours later, they leaked the rumor of the autodestape and the front pages of the newspapers this Tuesday attest to their yes I want. There is shooting, they would say in the neighborhood, something that will make some happy, but that will greatly worry many more.
López Obrador has taken the covered man out of the closet. Follow the rules of the PRI ritual. He speaks of the covered ones to, precisely, hide or protect who will receive the presidential anointing towards elections that will take place in three years. It is uncertain if AMLO took the board out of the covered by taste or necessity. Since the fall of a section of Metro Line 12, on May 3, its two main bishops, if not the only ones, have staggered, as Marcelo and Claudia will have much to explain in the times to come about construction and construction. maintenance, respectively, of that elevated train that collapsed killed 26 people and injured almost a hundred.
The coup of La Línea 12 was felt in the elections of June 6, when in Mexico City, Morena suffered the worst defeat of the left since it ruled the capital, 24 years ago; above, the political consequences of that derailment threatened to provoke an internal war in López Obrador's team, which ended up agreeing in the dark on a truce in which Carlos Slim will assume the costs of the repair (it is not known if he will also assume responsibility historical due to the tragedy), and in which neither Claudia nor Marcelo have permission to speak about the mishap and even less to use that misfortune for media stabbing.
AMLO's next move was to take pressure off Sheinbaum by saying that Morena has plenty of pictures to, when the time comes, select the person to succeed him. Several of the names on the list that the president gave are straw. But that of Marcelo, included by the president himself, and the absence of Ricardo Monreal in it attracted attention. He gave one life, while he left the second, as for a long time, in that limbo destined for those whom circumstances force us to endure: neither so close nor so far.
Monreal, cured of fright and a winner in the elections who only wants to expand his power, did not publicly resent the presidential disdain, which up to two occasions ignored his name. In a newspaper article, of course but without fanfare, he pointed himself out and people know that it is a replacement option for López Obrador: the president may not like it but he cannot make the mistake of minimizing it, because Ricardo is said to be may not help to win elections, but if it is disdained it can be a factor in losing them. One thing is for sure: the next move from the former Priista is pending, because getting comfortable is his thing. Whoever doubts this, remember 2017, a timely date to talk about AMLO and uncover: when Sheinbaum was elected by the current president, Monreal's tantrum led him to flirt with the opposition;Those talks did not come to fruition but the Zacatecan won after that rudeness the Morenoist position in the Senate that no one disputes him today.
The succession of the official match has started. Bad news for Morena, who has never elected a presidential candidate. They were born in a ball, behind an eternal and undisputed aspirant to the seat of the eagle. A litmus test is coming for a young and unconsolidated political organization that lacks institutional life. They are a lot of enthusiasm that can be overwhelmed if nobody drives them properly. There it will be seen if ever enough of them learned something fundamental from PRIism (one of its tributaries): partisan discipline. Otherwise, they will repeat that mistake of the PRD - its other tributary -, where the favorite sport of the tribes was to bleed to death.
The other implicit challenge in the premature career of the ruling party is that the aspirations of the covered ones will make governments, the federal and Mexico City, crack, which already showed signs of exhaustion, depleted bureaucratic structures that will now have to support the burdens from the grids and distractions of high bureaucracy.
Monreal, in addition to making laws at the president's pleasure, will have to cultivate his relationships and alliances; Marcelo, on top of his work as a firefighter for everything that López Obrador does not fully entrust to the armed forces, will walk in the press and spend hours watching "green children" (because of what he is dealing with that business without scruples called PVEM, which is rented to transport Ebrardist allies); Claudia, in addition to managing the chaotic CDMX, must strive to recover what was lost in the midterm elections and not to be buried by the real and constant problems of the capital, which suffers from the worst economy in many years.
Wow!
The Mexican president not only has covered, but these are super officials who in addition to their challenging government tasks now make it clear that they can and want the burden of the double shift, the one that forces them to go out daily, and well, in the photo of the pre-candidacy.
If they would govern with all that energy ... But, well, it's politics.
Mexican politics.
And Mexican politics with nostalgia for PRI rituals.
Fasten seat belts.
The roller coaster of the presidential succession has been inaugurated and the emotions will not be lacking.
Facing the battle, Claudia has already lined up members of the radical wing in her team since Monday (understand militants of the cult of "we will not have too many ideas but we will not lack disqualifications") in her government: she integrated Martí Batres and a spokesperson that augur bad times for dialogue in the city.
For his part, Marcelo in Toluca has allowed himself to be photographed on Sunday with members of the PVEM and Morena, so the resentment of those who feel that he was in trouble with the president's party to turn it exclusively into his vehicle will not take long to manifest. .
And, finally, Ricardo knows that in the second part of the six-year term in the Congress of the Union there will be uproar, and that without him - a negotiator with a lot of fangs and enough resources - the lopezobradorista administration does not have any law initiative assured.
Those three fight for the
pole position
of Andrés Manuel's grand prix start.
And to conclude, some caveats for those who believe that the presidential succession game involves only positive emotions:
After the uncovering –including autodestapes– the loaded ones always come, those untimely movements of people and the media to invigorate the aspirations of this or that one, huffing that will by definition run over more than one of the advanced ones.
The term used by President López Obrador is rare, that he will be the bottle opener but the "bottle cap" will be chosen by the people: in the contests of yesteryear, people would uncover with anxiety to see if their bottle was the winner, but almost always the message on that card, as those covers were also told, was to "participate again" ... but one had already spent the money.
And three, but not last: and of the victims of May 3, whose tragic death precipitated these political events, and of the pandemic, of the riding insecurity, of the weak economy, or who remembers.
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