Morena starts the legislature with joy; the natural death of the PRI and PAN is confirmed

Arturo Cano

The newspaper La Jornada
Monday, September 2, 2024, p. 12

For the 4T it was a day of joy –the plan C made reality – with hints of fury.

In the Zócalo, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador launched an attack on the oligarchs: They want power without people. To hell with that! (the square responded with the cry Pineapple Out!in reference to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court).

A few hours later, Luisa María Alcalde Luján, Secretary of the Interior, appeared on behalf of the president to deliver the sixth report, broke protocol and simultaneously provoked cries of outof the PRI and PAN legislators, and the already classic It is an honor to be with Obrador.

The farce started when the secretary took a microphone that was not on. Seconds later her high-pitched and powerful voice was heard with a hello hellooutside the formal solemnity of the event.

He then greeted the president of the Board of Directors, Ifigenia Martínez, with affection. And he continued with a greeting to a demon of the opposition: “(Gerardo) Fernández Noroña, president of the Senate… that sounds good.”

From the seats began the classic cry of “it is an honor…” The Mayor raised his left fist and continued the cry from the microphone.

Praise came for the origin of the 4T, its founders and its achievements. The opposition benches began booing.

The mayor was still on the podium, with a piece that he could have easily used at a Morena rally.

The report, he said, is a document that contains the essence of Mexican humanismHe then listed some of the federal government’s flagship programs, just to clarify: And no, they are not programs, they are social rights!

What followed was heard between shouts and hat-throwing, which It is an honor to be with Obrador and president, presidentshouted the legislators of Morena and allies. Out, out!shouted the PAN members, already standing, and emphasizing their shout with their arms.

The head of the Interior went on about the election and the fact that Claudia Sheinbaum will be the first female president of our countryHer words had the virtue of seeming like an improvisation, although they were certainly not. Short phrases, the rhetoric of the 4T summarized and put into the voice of who will be –this day it was confirmed– the next leader of the majority party.

The PAN members changed their cry to Resistance, resistance!

Amid shouts from both sides, Luisa Alcalde managed to say that the President would not use his power of preferential initiative. It is up to you, true defenders of the people, to have the final say and decide what will happen..

Once the presidential mission was completed, Alcalde said goodbye while the room was in disarray. Few heard the brief message from economist Ifigenia Martínez, daughter of a communist and educated at Harvard University, who presides over the Chamber, especially since she is expected to be the one, at 94 years old, to place the presidential sash on Claudia Sheinbaum.

The former director of the Faculty of Economics at UNAM said something about not being subordinated to another power and the need for respectful debateAt the end of his brief speech there was applause, although few heard his words.

The elephant in the room was judicial reform. Before the legislature was installed, the parliamentary leaders of the 4T were talking about impeaching the judges who granted suspensions to the discussion of the key reform and said that in a couple of days the ruling will take its course.

Once the General Congress session, in which the senators participated, was over, a half-hour recess was called to proceed with the 4T’s rush on judicial reform.

The crux of the matter was the suspensions granted by judges to prevent the ruling from being discussed. However, even lawyers who are inclined to the opposition have pointed out that the judges went too far; the PAN decided to take a chance on it. And more.

The issue cannot be discussed until the judges’ decisions are implemented, said the PAN members, not only because that is the position of their party. I speak for all the workers of the Judiciaryclarified the owner of the ideas of others, the PAN member Luis Rodríguez Torres.

As usual, the answer came from the coordinator of the majority. Deputy Monreal went up to the podium to give a lecture, as usual, but not before acknowledging that he knew Very good PAN lawyers.

By then, the PRI’s meager bench had already left the premises, thus confirming the natural death of the Prian.

Without resorting to lawyerly language, Monreal closed with the message he wanted to convey: Now they want to make them (the judges who ordered the suspension) heroes when they are nothing more than vulgar violators of the Constitution..

The vote was taken. And the new majority prevailed, as everyone knew. The unknowns are gradually being cleared up, but many remain: today a step was taken from the Government to Morena. Does that include the parliamentary factions in the hands of the old wolves who competed with the president in the Morena internal elections?