There is plan B in favor of democracy; the Constitution would not be touched: AMLO

Nestor Jimenez and Alonso Urrutia

Newspaper La Jornada
Wednesday, November 16, 2022, p. 4

In case the electoral reform proposal is rejected –which, being a constitutional change, requires the vote of two thirds of Congress– and since it is so important that there be democracy, it is likely that I will send a reform to the law that does not require two-thirds. A plan BPresident Andrés Manuel López Obrador anticipated yesterday.

Imagine how many notes there will be on the first dayhe expressed, hinting that it could be December 1st when he announces said proposal, the day on which he will offer a message in the Zócalo of the capital within the framework of the fourth anniversary of the start of his government.

Consulted in his daily conference on the opposition parties’ demand to discuss the issue in San Lázaro, the president argued that what they want is for a vote to be taken because they know that it may not reach 333 votes in the Chamber of Deputies.

recognized that is not easy because Morena and her allies represent a simple majority, but they do not reach a qualified majority. He recalled that the same thing happened with the electricity reform proposal, which did not advance because the conservatives voted in favor of Iberdrola, of the foreign companies, against the Federal Electricity Commission, of the public company, because that is how they are.

He insisted that it is possible that, without violating the Constitution, it can be proposed in a law or some reform the open election of directors of the National Electoral Institute and of magistrates of the Electoral Tribunal and that instead of 500 deputies there are 300, that is to say, that would be the same objectives of the initiative already presented.

Everyone assumes their responsibility

On Monday the leader of the Morenista senators, Ricardo Monreal, met with the Secretary of the Interior, Adán Augusto López Hernández, after which he said that the upper house will carry out a detailed analysis of the Executive’s initiative. The President pondered yesterday that he has always had the support of the Senate, but stressed: Here everyone assumes their responsibility and must act based on principles, ideals. And never forget, ever, that the people are the sovereign, they are the ones in charge.

He immediately stated that, assuming without conceding, that the public could support what “the PRI and the PAN say: ‘No, the constitutional reform is not going, because we want them to continue allocating 20 billion pesos and to continue earning a adviser up to 300 thousand pesos”, or that they want 500 deputies to remain and that the advisers and magistrates be appointed by the political leaders, or that they be aligned as employees of the powerful, not that they are our servants, not that they represent the people, but that they represent Claudio X. González, Elba Esther Gordillo, Chong, Fox, Calderón…

But he stated that, on the contrary, it turns out that people do not want that, it is shown in the polls. No, the people want to participate to elect the directors, and the people do not want there to be 500 deputies, but 300, and the people want there not to be multi-member representatives, and the people do not want 20 or 30 billion pesos to be spent on elections.

“There is no way that they already met in Las Lomas, in a mansion, they reached an agreement, they already gave the instruction to the legislators and the reform was no longer passed, and they toasted with champagne: ‘we won’… No, no, no . We are going to keep fighting, we are going to keep fighting,” López Obrador concluded.