Marcelo Ebrard creates his own political movement within Morena

Marcelo Ebrard, during a press conference in Mexico City, on September 11. RAQUEL CUNHA (REUTERS)

Former Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard has announced the creation of a civil association to organize his supporters and channel what he called a political movement. Ebrard has not formalized his departure from Morena, so he will lead his new formation even as a member of the cherry party. The group will be called El Camino de México A. C., a name that collects from the title of the autobiography of the former foreign minister published this year. Some 800 people signed the birth of the new organization at a closed-door event in Xochimilco, Mexico City. "It is a civil association that we are forming today, it is not a party, I clarify, because parties cannot be formed right now. Why do we form an association? It is the way to organize ourselves, we are a political movement, that is what we are, but we need to have our own form of organization, and the steps we take will be of the movement, "said Ebrard before his audience.

The announcement of the former secretary implies, for now, the creation of a current or faction within Morena, something that is prohibited by the Statutes of the party. Ebrard marked his distance from Morena after the internal process in which Claudia Sheinbaum was declared the winner and designated as a candidate for the presidency of the Republic. Since then, the former official has shown signs of rupture, without consummating it. He has already promoted a challenge before the Honesty and Justice Commission of Morena and said that his result will depend on whether he remains in the party. In several interviews, he has said that his goal is to appear on next year's presidential ballot. The question is how he will achieve it. The deadline to run as an independent candidate has already passed, as has the deadline for the creation of new political parties. The options are few.

The former foreign minister has maintained an open dialogue with Movimiento Ciudadano (MC), a formation for which he once ran as a candidate for deputy. The announcement on Monday, in which deputies and senators were present, not only from Morena, has served as a means of contact to keep their bases active and at the same time has been a demonstration of political muscle. The new AC will serve Ebrard to sustain a tour of several States, where the former secretary seeks to take what has become his crusade: the denunciation of irregularities in the internal by the presidential candidacy, the demand that these anomalies be recognized and amended, the moral voice that Morena, the party founded by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, must banish from its blood the corrupt practices of other formations.

"They will never bend us," Ebrard told his bases on Monday. "It's our movement and we're going to get where we want to go, that's Mexico's way." The former foreign minister has asked his supporters for patience and not to lose heart. "These things take time," he added. "I'm never going to let you down, we're saying it here, we're going to do it," he promised. From between the chairs the marcelistas rose and chanted several times "president!", raising their fists and giving applause and shouts of triumph.

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