Marcelo Ebrard Casaubón decided to bet all his chips on the cherry color and, after losing, he did not lose. He played hard and was not satisfied with defeat, he kicked, screamed and even stopped breathing for a while, where is Marcelo? Everyone was looking for him. Finally he seems to have found his place as Secretary of Economy in the Mexican Government that for the first time in history will be presided over by a woman, Claudia Sheinbaum, his adversary and now his boss, for whom he does not spare compliments. Life takes many turns. In his new trench, Ebrard will be able to use his old contacts as Mexican Foreign Minister to reach an agreement with the Biden or Trump Administration in favor of the development of his country, which awaits the settlement of American companies and the best commercial performance under the free trade agreement. North American trade, the USMCA. What he now has to do is distribute the economic prosperity that is presumed at this stage throughout the territory and not just in the traditional industrial centers. Marcelo Ebrard has returned and he sails through the Morenista waters in complete calm.
2023 was a Annus horribilis for Ebrard (Mexico City, 64 years old). He sought his long-cherished dream, the presidency of Mexico, and had to settle, again, for second place. History was fatefully repeating itself. In 2012, having just left the head of the city government, he decided not to fight and give way in the presidential race to Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who was more favored in the polls. Last year it was his time. The internal poll that was to designate a new candidate for the republican throne had two advanced heads, his and that of Claudia Sheinbaum. The former chancellor started with a good prognosis that soon went awry in favor of the adversary. He accused the party of using bad tricks and until the end he extended the idea of a lack of cleanliness in the internal dispute. He was right, but the percentage difference also left no room for doubt: Sheinbaum won easily and Ebrard brought out all the artillery. Let the process be repeated, they were not going to settle. “We are not going to tolerate a leadership doing this to us,” she said. And at the height of her anger, behind closed doors with her people, she launched the great order: “We are not going to submit to that lady,” she spat.
Last September, the party’s essential unity to win the elections was faltering. Ebrard had a good base of followers who did not support the winner and not only that, the opposition parties wanted him by their side to make that political capital profitable. More than alongside him, Marcelo Ebrard could have been the presidential candidate in the Citizen Movement, which waited for him until the last moment. And also the opposition coalition that Xóchitl Gálvez later championed constantly made eyes at him. Nobody doubted that the former chancellor was a good asset for the highest seat of Mexican power, but Marcelo had not finished undoing the daisy. The silence for long days was thick and disturbing, because the time to present yourself as a candidate for any political color was coming to an end. After the storm there was calm: Ebrard stayed in Morena and would see what the immediate future held for him.
The efforts that the victors made in those days to retain him at their side were not few. At the official designation of Sheinbaum as a Morenoist candidate, nothing was spoken of except unity. The “comrade” Marcelo had “the doors open” and a message from Sheinbaum on his cell phone asking him to play on his team. “You can be part of the cabinet, coordinate the Senate or the deputies,” the candidate offered. President López Obrador, who designed the selection process in detail, had already foreseen the distribution of juicy positions for the losers for the sake of unity. But the former chancellor had settled into a tantrum and rejected everything. “I hope he decides to support the transformation,” Obrador pushed: “he is a very good person, a good leader, a good public servant, he is my friend.”
The gesture that the president-elect dedicated to him this Thursday was unequivocal, the scars were disappearing as if by magic. In the presentation of the first six secretaries of her cabinet, Ebrard was the first named, “the best person to support the project,” Sheinbaum said. And he was also the only one who spoke after her to thank “for the enormous privilege.” The key position that he has obtained in the future government can guarantee him enough prominence to leave him again, in six years, on the starting line towards the presidency. Ebrard can still dream of his dream.
He has plenty of managerial experience and political experience to play a good role in his new role. Mexico navigates the best waters to take advantage of this period. The relocation of American companies to Mexican soil provides for acceptable economic and labor development that will have to be completed with the best use of the North American free trade agreement, recently renewed and which will have to be renegotiated. His time as chancellor has provided him with good contacts to use all his diplomacy with the White House. Ebrard has fought a thousand battles and has some medals to show off. When he was head of the city government, between 2066 and 2012, he approved the abortion law, for example, a path of modernity that has since spread throughout the country. He was declared the best mayor in the world in 2010 by the London foundation City Mayors. He studied International Relations at the College of Mexico and completed his studies at the former French National School of Administration, of high reputation, where he has trained numerous political cadres and several presidents of the Republic in that country. He speaks Spanish, English and French. The former chancellor’s resume is irreproachable.
Once party adversaries, Sheinbaum and Ebrard are now coming to join the new Mexican government. And who knows if one day one will receive the baton of command from the other. Life takes many turns. Paradoxically, Ebrard’s triumph is that of Claudia Sheinbaum, who these days everyone recognizes for her left hand in having known how to channel the waters as the undoubted captain of the team.
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