Mexico City.- The virtual president-elect, Claudia Sheinbaum, accused the Opposition of seeking to have the National Electoral Institute (INE) violate the Constitution, by asking it to avoid an overrepresentation of the majority bloc in the Chamber of Deputies.
In a press conference at his transition house, he recalled that political adversaries are calling for a demonstration to ask the INE to prevent Morena and its allies from obtaining a number of plurinominal deputies that would allow them to obtain the qualified majority necessary to make constitutional changes.
“The other day I saw that political opponents are calling for a demonstration to ask the INE to violate the Constitution, because they say there is over-representation and the demonstration is to prevent that from happening,” he said.
Yesterday, the National Civic Front, one of the organizations that promoted Xóchitl Gálvez’s presidential candidacy, called for a demonstration on August 11 in front of the INE facilities against the overrepresentation of Morena and its allies from the PVEM and PT.
Sheinbaum said that the Magna Carta is clear in stating that the representation of the plurinominals is determined by the votes obtained by each political party during the electoral day and not by the votes obtained by a coalition.
“As stated without errors, without possibility of interpretation, the representation of the plurinominals is established from the vote of the political parties, not of the coalitions,” he said.
The Morena member warned that those who are asking the INE to violate the Constitution are the same ones who speak of the rule of law and that the electoral referee cannot be touched.
“Those who talk about the rule of law, about respect for institutions, about not touching the INE, etc., etc., etc., are calling for a march so that the INE violates the Constitution,” he insisted.
Criticizes VAT, but keeps it
Although she considered it regressive, Sheinbaum announced that there is no plan to eliminate or reduce the Value Added Tax (VAT).
The virtual president-elect criticized that, since its imposition, VAT has been a regressive tax, because it charges the same rate to those who earn a minimum wage as to those who earn a million pesos a month.
This, he said, is despite the fact that the Constitution establishes that taxes must be progressive, as is the case with the Income Tax (ISR) through which the Government charges more to those who have more.
“We said it at the time when it was imposed and later, when they raised the VAT to the rate of 15 percent: it is a very regressive tax, because we all have to pay the same,” he recalled.
However, Sheimbaum reported that, for the moment, this tax is not being reviewed, since the Economic Package 2025 will not contain changes in terms of taxes and rates.
“For now, we are not proposing it (a review), but just as there are these taxes (the ISR), there are regressive taxes,” he reiterated.
Asked about Brazil’s proposal for the richest men on the planet to pay 2 percent of their wealth in taxes, Sheimbaum said she was in favor of revising it.
“We have to look at the issue of the proposal that is being made in general. We agree that taxes should be progressive, because those who have the least cannot pay more,” he said.
However, he said that in Mexico, despite the increase in the fortunes of some of the richest men and the profits of the banks, during the current six-year term, inequality and poverty have been reduced.
As an example, he recalled that during the government of Felipe Calderón, the difference between the richest and the poorest was 35 times, while in the current administration, this gap was reduced to 15 times.
“In Mexico, even with the growth of bank profits and of some of the wealth of men – I say men because they are men in general – there is a decrease in inequality,” she said.
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