There is no cover anymore.
Morena has brought her candidates out into the sunlight this Sunday to relieve President López Obrador in the 2024 presidential elections. The photo was morbid: the candidates together.
The staging of the start to the race has brought together Claudia Sheimbaum, Marcelo Ebrard and Adán Augusto López in Toluca.
An unequivocal message of unity was sought with this, something difficult given that the succession has been advanced, traditionally the fight began a year before the elections.
The absence of the fourth in contention, Ricardo Monreal, already ventures possible dissent: the head of the Senate's Political Coordination Board has repeatedly complained of internal obstacles to competing in the succession.
In an unprecedented political act, the party's national leadership wanted to stage unwavering support for the president and try to show that, above the personal interests of the candidates, the harmony of the party must prevail.
The rally, held in Toluca, capital of the State of Mexico, where elections for governor will be held in 2023, has been a small catharsis in which, after months of interpretations of gestures, it has left an image that speaks of who is who in the Fourth Transformation and his ambition to be on the front lines.
The message has been unanimous, an almost identical letter for a very similar melody.
Neither the head of the Government of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum, nor the Secretary of Foreign Relations, Marcelo Ebrard, or the Secretary of the Interior, Adán Augusto López, have openly referred to their plans, although they have referred to the goal of the presidential elections.
Their call for cohesion has been unequivocal, but so is the place they occupy, having been placed by López Obrador himself at the head of the succession process: the famous bottle cap race.
Adán Augusto, Secretary of the Interior, in his speech on June 12, 2022. Rodrigo Oropeza
"Now is the time for unity, it is the time for the transformation of the country and that only happens if we all go together," summarized the Secretary of the Interior, a man of the highest confidence and faithful operator of the president.
"We are going to win if we go ahead, if we don't divide and if we don't get confused, we are going to win in the State of Mexico, we are going to win in Coahuila and we are going to win in 2024", emphasized the foreign minister, the first to leave the stage at the end of the act.
"We are more united than ever, nothing personal is above the sacred interests of the people of Mexico", highlighted the councilor of the capital.
The hundreds of sympathizers, mobilized from various states, who packed the esplanade of the Morelos Theater have attended a starting signal that breaks the tradition that Mexico maintained for decades: the famous cloak that, finally, was designated by the president to replace him in the presidential race.
Its celebration has to do with López Obrador's desire to put an end to that past so that the replacement takes place in the light of the sun, without hidden maneuvers.
"There are no longer covered," the president has been repeating for days.
Apparently at least, since an increasingly widespread analysis points to Adán Augusto López as the favorite due to his closeness and affinity with the chief executive.
In the act they waved a multitude of banners in support of the former governor of Tabasco, but there was also a group especially dedicated to applauding Ebrard,
The head of the Government of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum, during the informational meeting of Morena.Rodrigo Oropeza
The militants have also adhered to the doctrine of unity, which the elected governors of Tamaulipas, Quintana Roo and Oaxaca have also preached from the stage.
“What we want is for it to be a day of unity.
And whoever is elected, we will support him,” says Uriel Velasco, from Los Reyes de Acaquilpan, in the State of Mexico.
However, as always happens, if the presences are eloquent, the absences also say a lot.
The most notorious was that of the head of the Political Coordination Board of the Senate, Ricardo Monreal, who had his own agenda in the capital.
The veteran leader of Morena, who has openly announced his intention to compete in an internal election, has been complaining for weeks about internal balances.
“There are no clear rules, there is no level floor, there is favoritism,
The discomfort in the ranks of the formation is not a novelty.
The national leader of Morena, Mario Delgado, master of ceremonies for the act, has announced the convening of a congress for September.
“It is time to call for internal reorganization, with the commitment of unity ahead.
That is why I bring you a proposal here today: that we begin preparations now to have district assemblies in the month of July and August, and that we go to a great national congress in September.
May our movement be strong and organized for the battle of 2024 ″, he has stated.
Marcelo Ebrard Casaubón, Secretary of Foreign Relations, greets the public gathered in Toluca. Rodrigo Oropeza
The president officially opened the relay ball last Monday in the wake of the results of the local elections the day before.
His party expanded its territorial domain by winning in Quintana Roo, Oaxaca, Hidalgo and Tamaulipas.
He now, along with his allies, controls 22 of the 32 Mexican states.
That means more power, including greater ability to mobilize voters.
When there are still two years left to run out of the six-year term, however, López Obrador asked the applicants not to deviate from their work.
"The only thing is that they don't get distracted from their duties."
Faced with the stumbling blocks of the opposition alliance and the lack of clear leadership, all the spotlights are concentrated on the official pre-candidates.
The main leaders determined to compete have already begun,
de facto,
their campaign and have even used the rallies before Sunday's elections to strengthen their national profile.
Sheinbaum and Ebrard are the two favorite names and embody, respectively, the pure and pragmatic spirit of the Fourth Transformation.
Despite the objections of a sector of the formation headed by Monreal and that sees it as risky for the stability of Morena to undertake an early succession, the president defends this management of the times.
“I believe that it is part of the change that there are no
covers,
that everything can be made transparent and that it is the people who choose the candidates.
It is that, really, it is an inheritance also of decades.
This began, the
covered one,
in 1880, when Porfirio Díaz arrived for the first time with the flag of non-reelection, ”he commented this week.
He assures that whoever wants can join the internal process, which will be decided through a survey among supporters.
In no case, he has assured, with a primaries.
“If [the internal election] opens, the mafia gets involved.”
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