On Sunday, Mexicans elected the first female president in the country’s history. That option was a fact even before the vote, since two women were competing for victory. Claudia Sheinbaum did not limit herself to winning, but she swept with an unprecedented result that exceeds by five million votes the one achieved by her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. This scenario had also been announced for months by all the rigorous surveys, without exception, and anticipated by a climate that was breathed outside the bubbles. However, after the polls closed, the noise began, as always amplified by social networks. At no time did its effects seriously cloud election night; Rather, they led to an outrageous narrative in which the opposition’s messages clashed with forecasts and, above all, with facts. That is, with scrutiny. The purpose, even without handles, was simple and consisted of sowing doubts about Sheinbaum, former head of government of Mexico City, left-wing politician and scientist. And her opponent, Xóchitl Gálvez, standard bearer of the alliance of traditional forces (PRI, PAN and PRD), was the main person in charge of spreading this species.
Don’t sleep today!
Stay attentive and awake.
— Xóchitl Gálvez Ruiz (@XochitlGalvez) June 3, 2024
“Don’t sleep today! Stay alert and awake,” Gálvez launched in his X profile after half past ten at night. At that time, the National Electoral Institute (INE) had already twice delayed the release of the quick count, a projection with hardly any margin of error, which is common in all elections. A few minutes passed and the opposition candidate continued: “The votes are there. Let’s not allow them to hide them.” There were two more messages along those lines, with thousands of replicas on Elon Musk’s social network. First, he insisted: “They want you to go to sleep believing they beat you. They lie as always.” And then she continued with the publication of the photo of her electoral results, where she was the winner by a large majority. Gálvez actually lost by more than 30 points against his rival from Morena.
The votes are there. Let’s not allow them to hide them.
— Xóchitl Gálvez Ruiz (@XochitlGalvez) June 3, 2024
We won Mexico City together!
The time has come to build together the safest city in the entire country, a government for all the people, that does not rest a single day to modernize the Metro, give water to the neighborhoods and decent hospitals. #TheChangeArrived 🎉 pic.twitter.com/Thp5JUjWD1
— Santiago Taboada (@STaboadaMx) June 3, 2024
Despite the confusion that this strategy generated, it was a coordinated operation. The opposition candidate was joined by leaders such as the leader of the PAN, Marko Cortés, and the candidate of the same party in the capital, Santiago Taboada. “We won Mexico City together! The time has come to build together the safest city in the entire country,” wrote the young politician, defeated by Clara Brugada, also from Morena. Under the hashtag #ElCambioLlegó, assertions that were closer to fantasy than reality multiplied. “By the will of the people of Mexico, Xóchitl Gálvez will be the next president of the Republic!”, ventured the president of the PRI, Alejandro Moreno. The former PAN president Vicente Fox went further by stating that the computer system had fallen, an allusion that in Mexico refers to 1988, when the computer system did fall and Carlos Salinas de Gortari prevailed over the leftist Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas.
By the will of the people of Mexico, @XochitlGalvez She will be the next President of the Republic! We are going to work hand in hand with every Mexican to recover the country, to return peace and security to our nation. Mexico deserves more, it’s time to make it happen! 🇲🇽 pic.twitter.com/P0ZJVxvGZ4
— Alejandro Moreno (@alitomorenoc) June 3, 2024
NOW BOTH MEXICO CITY AND NATIONAL SYSTEMS ARE DOWN.
AND CLAUDIA DOESN’T DARE TO APPEAR IN THE CENTER OF MEXICO CITY.— Vicente Fox Quesada (@VicenteFoxQue) June 3, 2024
All these items remained, in any case, a mere staging. And when the electoral authority finally offered, at the stroke of twelve, the data from the rapid count, the opposition recognized the result. “Being your candidate has been the greatest honor of my life. They will always count on me as a warrior who will fight for a country in which life, truth and freedom are respected,” Gálvez conceded.
However, on Monday, after Sheinbaum called for coexistence and made a plea in defense of the right to dissent, the PRI, PAN and PRD candidate returned to the insinuations. “I know there is a lot of confusion and many doubts. I know the results surprise us […]. Today more than ever we must defend our democracy. We are the resistance and we must do what we have to do: defend Mexico from authoritarianism and bad government.” This message will help Gálvez to argue some challenge and perhaps win a seat in Congress. The rest, like the discourse on authoritarianism that was one of the leitmotiv of the campaign, he was defeated at the polls.
I want to start this message with a THANK YOU to each and every Mexican who dared to dream and joined this great movement.
I was a candidate chosen by citizens and good women and men. Wherever you free citizens decide to go, we will go.
I know there are…
— Xóchitl Gálvez Ruiz (@XochitlGalvez) June 3, 2024
#Xóchitl #Gálvez #strategy #knowing #lose
