López Obrador pulls muscle and leads the way for Morena's presidential candidates

López Obrador, together with Claudia Sheinbaum, in the march this Sunday. Marco Ugarte (AP)

"Look who's here!" shouts a man at the Ángel de la Independencia, raising the expectations of thousands of people waiting for the arrival of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

“The people are the ones who arrived!” He replies.

People laugh and cheer themselves up.

"Long live the people!

Long live the people!" they shout.

Glances are exchanged.

They look in a mirror.

López Obrador, 69, has once again taken to the streets and has mobilized his bases, just like when he was in the opposition.

in Mexico City

, called by the president in response to the demonstration three weeks ago against his electoral reform project

López Obrador has been in office for four years and thus shows the strong popular support for his government.

But the march has also been the way in which the president made those aspiring to succeed him walk among the masses and give them a lesson about his political creed, which he baptized "Mexican Humanism", in which the poor and the figure of the people occupy a central place.

“Politics is, among other things, thought and action, and even when facts are fundamental, it does not stop mattering how to define the government model we are applying in theoretical terms.

My proposal would be to call it Mexican humanism.

We have to look for a badge.

Not only because of the phrase attributed to the Roman writer Julio Terence that nothing human is alien to us, but because, nourished by universal ideas, the essence of our project comes from our millennial cultural greatness and our exceptional and fruitful political history”, he said. López Obrador in a speech in the capital's Zócalo, where his march ended.

"Authentic politics is deeply human in its foundation, in its essence, and above all when it is practiced for the good of others and, especially, of the poor."

Behind the president, on stage,

Several government officials were sitting, as well as three presidential candidates: the head of government of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum;

Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard and the Secretary of the Interior, Adán Augusto López.

The great absentee was Senator Ricardo Monreal, increasingly distanced from López Obrador and his party, Morena.

The president recited his conception that progress without social justice is regression;

that the Government must guarantee the redistribution of wealth, and that helping the poor must be a priority of all politics.

“Beyond simple economic growth, it is essential to banish corruption and privileges to allocate everything obtained and saved for the benefit of the majority of the people, and specifically for the benefit of the poorest and most marginalized.

The central strategy of the government in the field of social policy rests on respecting, caring for and listening to everyone, but giving preference to the poor and humiliated”, he said.

López Obrador recalled the slogan that he popularized in his electoral campaign in 2000, when he wanted to be the ruler of the capital: "For the good of all, the poor first."

López Obrador reviewed the names of the historical figures that make up his political creed: the independence priest Miguel Hidalgo, the indigenous president Benito Juárez, the anarchist writer Ricardo Flores Magón, the liberal politician Francisco I. Madero, the nationalist president Lázaro Cárdenas (who also went out to march in favor of his government, in 1935).

“Caring for the poorest is also, as if that were not enough, to play it safe to have the support of many when seeking to transform a reality of oppression and achieve the ideal of living in a better, more just, humanitarian and fraternal society. .

Who really defends a democratic government?

The village.

Who supports the fourth transformation?

The village.

That is why we are never, ever going to betray the people”, he said to a roar of applause.

After making the presidential hopefuls accompany him in his march, López Obrador launched himself against the politicians who take mass baths only to get to power.

“Nothing is achieved without love for the people.

Perhaps in other times you could pretend, simulate, go on a campaign to ask for votes, hug people and then come to office and forget about the people.

Maybe in other times.

Not now.

The advice to young people is, if you want to dedicate yourself to the name job of politics: do not forget that the main thing is to have love for the people, to love the people.

Nothing is achieved without love for the people ”, he has established.

hug the people and then get to office and forget about the town.

Maybe in other times.

Not now.

The advice to young people is, if you want to dedicate yourself to the name job of politics: do not forget that the main thing is to have love for the people, to love the people.

Nothing is achieved without love for the people ”, she has established.

hug the people and then get to office and forget about the town.

Maybe in other times.

Not now.

The advice to young people is, if you want to dedicate yourself to the name job of politics: do not forget that the main thing is to have love for the people, to love the people.

Nothing is achieved without love for the people ”, she has established.

The president has added that, in his creed, there is no room for defeatism.

He and his bases know that to be true.

The Zócalo, the main square in Mexico, is part of that political biography of López Obrador.

In 2005, when he was head of the capital's government and presidential candidate, he led the

in protest of the impeachment process undertaken against him by slogan of the then president, Vicente Fox. The demonstration ended in the Zócalo, where López Obrador gave a speech before thousands of supporters.

At that time he used to say to his bases: "I love them madly."

A year later, after an election in which he accused fraud, that same square was the place where López Obrador protested as "legitimate president", dressed in a presidential sash, was sworn in, formed a cabinet and assigned resistance tasks to the militancy. .

In 2012, after losing that year's election and once again accusing fraud – it was his second attempt to become president – ​​López Obrador reunited his bases in the Zócalo.

In his autobiography

, he wrote that even then he felt old and defeated, and confessed that at some point he considered announcing his retirement from politics.

He had prepared a speech, which he ultimately did not give.

"I wanted to be like Juárez, like Madero, like General Cárdenas, and the people couldn't or didn't want to," he wrote in his book.

“I am going to fight all my life for my ideals, but I will no longer be a candidate for anything;

I retire as a political leader.

And it will be a source of pride for me to be able to say to my adversaries: 'You see, I'm not a vulgar greed, I'm not obsessed with being president'”.

López Obrador did not retire.

Instead, he founded his party in 2015, and three years later, in his third electoral campaign, he became president, the most voted in recent Mexican history.

The night of the election, he celebrated his triumph in an overflowing Zócalo.

This Sunday, upon arriving at the same plaza, he was greeted with a song of thousands of voices.

"You are not alone, you are not alone!"

López Obrador is already preparing, this time, his farewell.

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