The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, expects more resignations from his close collaborators in the coming days. In addition to the four main presidential candidates, who must leave their posts before the end of this week, the president has asked the members of his cabinet to come up with a definition and notify him, no later than Tuesday, if they will continue in the portfolios in which that he has appointed them, or if they are aiming for a popularly elected position, with a view to next year’s elections. In 2024, not only the Presidency of the Republic and the two Chambers of the federal Congress will be renewed. Nine governorships will also be at stake —including Mexico City— and dozens of mayors. López Obrador has affirmed that collaborators who have aspirations must present their resignation, and has asked that they notify him soon, so that he can make the necessary substitutions.
The president has called this day a meeting in the National Palace for his legal and extended cabinet, which includes the heads of the secretariats and the directors of decentralized bodies and parastatal entities, to address this issue. “The meeting is to tell them: ‘Let’s see, do you want to continue to finish or do you plan to participate as a candidate, as a candidate?’ Because that is also legitimate; however, I need to know, because changes can no longer be taking place. Now, take the opportunity to find out who will be there until the end of September of next year and who will participate as candidates for Congress, governorships, or whatever has to be chosen,” the president explained in his conference on Monday.
After a two-hour meeting, some members of López Obrador’s cabinet have advanced their plans to the reporters stationed at the gates of the National Palace. The Secretary of the Interior, Adán Augusto López, has announced that he will leave his post on Friday to join the fight for Morena’s presidential candidacy. While the head of the Federal Consumer Prosecutor’s Office (Profeco), Ricardo Sheffield, will separate from his functions to participate, once again, in the race for the governorship of Guanajuato: “The second time is the charm”, he said when leaving the meeting.
On the morning of this Tuesday, the president was questioned about whether the resignations will not affect the stability of his government, in the last year he has left in office. He has ensured that the priority programs are safe, since those who leave are the holders of the portfolios, not the officials who are in charge of executing projects. “Regardless of the secretariat in question, which has its entire administrative structure to attend to all matters, the priority projects of a secretariat have those responsible,” he indicated. “For this reason, it does not harm the progress of the Government, and we are also going to replace, in the cases in which they are going to participate as candidates, we are going to replace them with women and men with conviction, with principles, there will be no problem,” he said. aggregate.
The new resignations that López Obrador receives are parallel to the process of defining the presidential candidacy, which is already well underway, after the session of the National Council of Morena on Sunday that established the rules of the internal contest. The now ex-chancellor, Marcelo Ebrard, came forward to the caps and resigned first. This Tuesday the name of the person who will replace him in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was announced: Alicia Bárcena, former ambassador to Chile. The head of the Government of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum, has announced that she will leave office on Thursday, and Senator Ricardo Monreal has said that she will do so on Friday. The Secretary of the Interior, Adán Augusto López, has not revealed what day he will resign, but it is a fact that it should be before the end of the week, as defined by the Morenista National Council.
subscribe here to the newsletter from EL PAÍS México and receive all the key information on current affairs in this country
#López #Obrador #Cabinet #officials #free #hand #seek #elected #positions