Are you interested in participating in the process to become the national leader of the PAN?
I am making a very objective assessment. I have not yet decided whether to compete or not, because for me there is one priority: that the party does not split, that there is no confrontation that would hurt the PAN. If I see the possible conditions for the PAN to unite more from within, from the competition, of course I will register.
It seems to me that beyond my personal interest is the interest in having an opposition in Mexico (…) today Mexico needs a united opposition, a strong, honorable, intelligent opposition…
In the second half of the election year, the PAN has to renew its leadership. Various media outlets have mentioned me, of course, including Jorge Romero, who is our coordinator of the caucus in the House of Representatives, Damián Zepeda, who is my fellow senator, and Adriana Dávila, who has been a senator. It seems to me that there are extraordinary names of people who want to occupy that space.
Beyond the renewal of the leadership, what does the PAN need after the election results?
We need to have an ideological identity. What are we? Are we a centre-right party? Is that what we are? If that is what we are, we have to tell the electorate. I do not believe that we are a left-wing party, our party principles do not say so. And we cannot compete with a left-wing government – which is very litigious whether it really is left-wing or not – but we cannot compete with a government that calls itself left-wing while we try to pretend to be left-wing because that is not what we are. What are we? I say it publicly: it is clear to me that we are a centre-right party and we have to tell the electorate that.
“Thinking that we are on the left is like trying to sell hamburgers in front of a McDonald’s. And that’s not even what we are. We are a humanist party, we are a party that believes in free enterprise, we are a party that believes in the family, we are a party that believes in human rights. That’s what we are.”
Why are other parties managing to connect with citizens, but not the PAN?
Well, representing what citizens really care about, love and want. We are going to support social programs. Because it seems to me that social programs are clearly a priority for Mexicans today, because that redistribution of resources is needed throughout the country. But we also have to look for more. We have to look for young people to have the possibility of having a loan at some point in their life and having assets. A young person in Mexico City would have to earn more than 40 thousand pesos to have a mortgage on a property. How many young people earn 40 thousand pesos? Absolutely less than 5%. So, it becomes brutal, terrible! What we have to do is create the conditions so that we do have a developing country and, of course, that we (the PAN) represent that.
How can we make the PAN, a party that has been identified more with the business elite, identify with the citizens?
I would invite the citizens because things need to change from within. Get involved in political parties. Guys, girls: if you don’t like how this country is working, get involved in political parties! You have to be active. We live in a party system. That’s the reality. And that’s the law. The truth is that I feel there is a crisis of parties in the world. I feel that there is also a crisis, let’s say, for the credibility of politicians in the world. That is a reality, but, in the end, we are all citizens.
