As if it were a catwalk, the table for the second debate by the Government of Mexico City has seen more junk than proposals parade this Sunday night. Bottles of water, photographs and even some crumpled election posters were carried by the candidates to accuse their rivals of something. The water crisis and corruption, the two topics designated for the meeting, were the axes of the fight between the two candidates with the most voting intentions: Clara Brugada, from the National Regeneration Movement (Morena), and Santiago Taboada, from the alliance Opposition goes through CDMX. The first focused on hitting him with the real estate cartel, a huge case of corruption that arose in the mayor's office governed by the National Action Party. The second focused on the poor management of water by the left-wing governments and the current Administration of Martí Batres, overshadowed by a recent scandal due to the leak of some contaminant into the supply network of this resource in the capital.
The attacks in this meeting have at times reached personal levels, they have been low blows. Taboada, who according to recent surveys is closing the gap with the lead, has quickly gone on the attack. Brugada, perhaps less effective in face-to-face confrontations than in rallies, has endured the offensive with the goal set on June 2. With four jars of dirty water in his hand, the PAN member has reproached him for 27 years of progressive governments “doing nothing” to address the shortage of this resource. “I invite you to bathe with this water,” he told her with a yellowish substance in his hand. The temporal reference refers to six left-wing administrations, with Morena and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), a formation that today is part of the coalition represented by Taboada himself.
For an hour and a half, the attacks were only intertwined with some proposals, but they spent much of the time pointing at the other side of the table. Just as they did in the first electoral debate, they had prepared many posters and catchy phrases, assembled at home. “You're not Clara, you're shady,” one launched. “You, the only escape [en referencia a las tuberías de agua] that you have covered up in your life, is the escape of your colleagues from the real estate cartel,” said the other.
Salomón Chertorivski, from the Citizen Movement, has remained in the background, and he is far behind in the polls. While his two opponents got into the discussion, the orange candidate focused mostly on presenting his proposals. Although he also brought to the table some huge crumpled posters with the faces of Brugada and Taboada, taken from the street, where these days advertising for the candidates abounds. “There is not an inch of the city that does not have its filth,” he claimed and detailed that about 91 liters of water are used in the production of each of these posters. Chertorivski joined the criticism of the capital government's poor response to the contaminated water crisis. “We have been 22 days since the crisis began in Benito Juárez,” he said, and thousands of people “continue in uncertainty.”
The Morenista was able to settle better in the second block, in which they discussed the fight against corruption. On this issue, Taboada has more pending accounts than his rivals. The mayor of Benito Juárez on leave has been linked to the real estate corruption network that has landed several of his party colleagues in jail. “264 floors of corruption,” Brugada insisted with a sign in his hands that represented the buildings that were erected in that delegation illegally. “It's a bit embarrassing to talk to you Santiago about corruption, three of your people are in jail,” Chertorivski attacked. The real estate cartel has been the heaviest backpack that Taboada has had to carry, which has described the matter as political persecution.
Taboada has tried to make a dent by linking his main rival with some controversial figures from the movement he represents. To do this, he took a photo in which Brugada was seen next to René Bejarano, a former operator of Andrés Manuel López Obrador who was caught in the middle of a bribery scandal at the beginning of this century, when the president was in charge of the city government. . “He is your partner,” the PAN member has crushed her. While the candidate has tried to stick to the figures of the Fourth Transformation who have the best image, such as the president or the presidential candidate Claudia Sheinbaum, in the hope of scratching some votes. “A vote for Claudia Sheinbaum is a vote for me, a vote for me is a vote for Claudia Sheinbaum.”
Subscribe to the EL PAÍS Mexico newsletter and to the channel electoral WhatsApp and receive all the key information on current events in this country.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
_
#Accusations #water #crisis #corruption #mark #electoral #debate #Mexico #City