Andrés Manuel López Obrador presents this Monday a battery of constitutional reforms so extensive that it looks more like a government program from the beginning of the six-year term. For his approval he needs a majority that he does not have in Congress, so he will need the approval of the opposition, entangled in an elephant trap. If the opponents say they will not have to deal with the voters no less than in the middle of the campaign to go to the polls on June 2. If they say yes, their people may not like it and, in any case, it will be presented as a success for the president. Difficult situation. If a few weeks ago the PAN, PRI and PRD announced that they would be a strong shield against presidential initiatives, now they have changed the message. Who dares to say no to the constitutional consecration of an increase in pensions and their budget? Who can reject that workers have a 40-hour week instead of 48? Nobody in their right electoral mind. The three parties allied against Morena have already said that these two measures can count on their vote in favor.
What previously seemed like the president's desire to push through his reforms by hook or by crook before the end of his term, has now become an electoral masterstroke. The reform package will have to be debated in the coming weeks, when the PAN member Xóchitl Gálvez will campaign until the last vote against the Morenista candidate Claudia Sheinbaum, far ahead in the political polls. López Obrador will then have endless open public debates in Congress with which he intends not only to constitutionally guarantee 100% of the worker's salary for his retiree pension as well as the reduction at age 65 to collect it, or reduce it to 40 hours per week. the working day. He also presents a reform of citizen consultations so that 30% participation is enough to obtain a binding result; the election of judges and magistrates by popular vote, which has already heated up for months accusing these public officials of being on the side of privilege and distant from the common people; the constitutional endorsement so that social aid is not reversed, one of the strong points of this government ahead of the elections; a modification of the electoral law that is easy to sell to citizens because it withdraws resources from the political class and makes the Electoral Court look useless while reducing the weight of the INE, the same as withdrawing the jurisdiction of the President of the Republic, measures of high popular importance or populist, depending on who qualifies it; the minimum wage always above inflation; the extinction of autonomous organizations, also criticized as costly and useless; the reform of the electricity law, the transfer of the National Guard under military command or the constitutional prohibition of the consumption of fentanyl, among others.
Analysts and the opposition have already come out to say that these reforms are a covert electoral program, an unacceptable interference in the campaign by the president. Some have wanted to see a certain nervousness on the part of Morena in the initiatives, if not to win the presidency, which seems like an easy terrain, then because of the need to win sufficient majorities in Congress to guarantee them a comfortable last year that leaves solid foundations. to the next government. There is nothing more effective to win the vote than telling citizens that the opposition does not allow the winning party to govern, that it does not allow it to raise pensions, for example. Aware of this, Gálvez and the PRI have been quick to declare themselves in favor of some reforms. But the headlines in the media still may not be to your liking: some mention that they have “joined” the president, while López Obrador boasts of the “desperation” of his adversaries, which forces them, he says, to vote for him. favor of some of its measures. And to analyze others.
It is often mentioned that citizens do not like the Manichaean political game that forces one side to say one thing and the adversary to systematically position itself against it. But electoral campaigns require bite, sharp fangs to mobilize voters, fight, clear and found positions. And these presidential reforms put the opposition parties on the ropes, already in a weak ideological situation due to the disparity in criteria between the alliance members, whose only common denominator is their repudiation of the President of the Government and his party, Morena. Furthermore, they do not stop fighting among themselves over candidates. Being in the government is like playing at home, it always brings some advantage. So the opposition will have to choose very well when to give in and when to reinforce the attacks to avoid criticism from insiders and others and take advantage of the political scrum. The Citizen Movement and its candidate Jorge Álvarez Máynez must demonstrate the same balances. Today, like six years ago, they face a charismatic president who has promised to disappear from public life when his term ends, but not a minute before.
If the campaign was expected to be short of salt, because the opposition only finds itself facing an official candidate who is closed in her field under the protection of the advantage in the polls, these reforms can liven up the contest. And also dirty it. There will be no shortage of criticism of the government for its interference in the electoral game and the debate could be filled with complaints before the referee. But the initiatives presented to the Chambers are of such significance that they are expected to be louder than the campaign itself. The public fight that can decide the citizens' vote will also take place in the legislative sphere.
Subscribe here to the EL PAÍS México newsletter and receive all the key information on current events in this country
#López #Obrador39s #constitutional #reforms #put #opposition #ropes
