Xochitl Galvez readstamped the label of “the Ice Lady” to Claudia Sheinbaum on the forehead, evoking in the description of his coldness and heartlessness which summed up in the phrase Margaret Thatcher, “the Iron Lady” who unceremoniously led the industrial reconversion of the United Kingdom at the end of the 70's that began the second economic liberalization of the 20th century, which in Latin America was defined as “ neoliberalism”. Despite her strong hand, Thatcher did not look cold. Sheinbaum yes, and sometimes looks like a robot. The presidential candidate of the ruling party is a rigid woman, disciplined, dedicated, professional and obedientwhich are virtues and defects in a public life.
Those who did not know her had a first approach to her in Sunday's presidential debate. the real Claudia Sheinbaum. The image of Sweet Polly that has been sold to the electorate of an empathetic, sociable Sheinbaum, who sings, dances, laughs and is good-natured, the result of a careful and intelligent strategy by the regime's preferred consulting firm associated with Mario Delgado, the leader from Morena, is false. The noise caused by the technical failures in the debate and the performance of the opposition candidate below expectations served to hide the fact that she is not actually an ice lady, but rather it has a very short fuseperhaps more than that of President Andrés Manuel López Obradorwhich is measured in millimeters.
Sheinbaum is not what you see. Gálvez told him by way of disqualification that he did not have the charisma of López Obrador, which remained on the surface and banality. But the king and the dauphin are certainly not the same. López Obrador, although stubborn, is pragmatic. Despite being highly ideologized, although without having the baggage of a left-wing man, he is not dogmatic like Sheinbaumwho yes it has a leftist formation. López Obrador mistreats those close to him, even with obscenities, and with others he uses third parties so that they are the ones who wear themselves out. Sheinbaum explodes easily when they tell you things contrary to your thoughts, and does not stop to yell, humiliate or insult. Very few, who have walked with her for decades since her university days, dare to stop her subjugation.
López Obrador's candidatewho has been exceptionally well trained, and she exceptionally methodical, was shaken by Gálvez in the debate, and in the final part he began to respond to her attacks with increasingly aggressive mentions, until he even called her a “liar.” Sheinbaum, who as a strategy does not open spaces for them to debate with her – why would she do it if the published polls give her a wide advantage over Gálvez? – She was willing to enter the mud fight posed by her rival, who I was throwing her off. It didn't work in the end because the opposition candidate couldn't finish cornering her and take her to the ground she was raising.
There were times when he became exasperated and brought out his despotic disposition. Perhaps the best moment to illustrate this was when Manuel López San Martín, one of the moderators, told him, based on what the campaign teams and the INE had agreed upon, that they would talk about vulnerable groups, to which Sheinbaum responded that he already They had talked “enough” about women – which was false – and proceeded to promote the government's social programs. The candidate decided to stop the moderator in his tracks and change not only the order she was leading but also the order of the debate in general in an imposing way, getting her way. In another episode when Gálvez was stopping her, Sheinbaum said that she would not respond and that she would let him do it. Jorge Álvarez Máynezthe candidate of Citizen movementwhich he confirmed in the debate the role of scab that the party leader Dante Delgado agreed with López Obrador.
The manipulation of topics and people emerged pristinely, even if in fleeting strokes, but they were largely ignored in the debate before audiences who were attentive to other things or whose expectations and hopes were located in different variables. It is the same thing that has been happening in their meetings with business groups or messages through third parties to captains of industry that with it things are going to be different in form and substance than what they have experienced in the López Obrador government.
But why would it be like this? A persuasive argument, with an experience transmitted by those who were close to power, is that when they cross the presidential band on their chest it is a new game, which is what many think Sheinbaum will do if he wins the election and distances himself from López Obrador. The weakness of the argument is that this reflection is based on the experiences of politicians whose make is very different from that of López Obrador, his compact group and the legion of unconditional ones.
It is obvious that López Obrador is not a conventional politician. He resembles the ayatollahs of Iran, where politics is subordinated to dogmatic beliefs and guidelines. The lópezobradorista movement, as two keen observers point out, is a religious flock that functions as a sect. For almost a quarter of a century Sheinbaum has been part of that sect, whose loyalty and obedience goes beyond the internal struggles between its members. It is not made with the same material as the one who acted against Plutarco Elías Calles, nor the one who sent his friend to the Fiji Islands, or the one who arrested the president's brother.
But as in any activity where the human factor is an agent of change, there may be alterations in political behavior due to current needs. That, if she wins the Presidency, will not eliminate the hot temperament of “the Ice Lady”, nor her authoritarianism or dogmatism. The debate allowed us to glimpse an eventual future of Mexico with Sheinbaum, who would continue López Obrador's dream with forms and substance that are impossible to predict, but with characteristics in her personality that allow us to conjecture scenarios of the relationship that Sweet Polly could have with her subjects. Mexican politics.
X: @rivapa
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