The PAN faces renewing its leadership with the challenge of overcoming failures

PAN debacle

After the leadership of Marko Cortes, the PAN ceased to be what it represented six years ago: one of the main opposition political organizations in the country that had 11 governorships and more than 300,000 members.

Now the PAN has lost the Governorship of seven states, decreased its militancy by 26% and reduced its number of legislators in the Congress of the Union.

In the last six years, they reduced the number of militants from 378,838 in 2017 to 277,665 in 2023. Also in this period their number of legislators decreased: in 2018 they managed to obtain 104 deputies and senators, and in 2024 they reached 94.

In 2018, when Marko Cortés assumed the presidency, the party headed the governorships of Baja California, Baja California Sur, Puebla, Chihuahua, Durango, Nayarit, Aguascalientes, Tamaulipas, Guanajuato, Querétaro and Yucatán. These states became their bastions as they were governed by PAN members… until Morena arrived.

In his first elections as leader in 2019, Marko Cortés received his first blow, in that year Morena took away one of his main governorships, which was Baja California with the Morenista Jaime Bonilla. This state was headed by the PAN since 1989, when for the first time the entity alternated with the PAN member Ernesto Ruffo Appel.

In that same year, the PAN lost the Governorship of Puebla. In December 2018, the entity was left without its PAN leader Martha Erika Alonso, who died in a plane crash, so after the 2019 elections, the Morenoist Miguel Barbosa won.

The next setback was in 2021. In those elections, Marko Cortes’ leadership lost two more states: Baja California Sur and Nayarit with the Morenistas Víctor Manuel Castro and Miguel Ángel Navarro, respectively.

A year later, in 2022, the PAN lost governorships again: one was Tamaulipas with the Morenoist Américo Villareal Anaya, and Durango, since the latter was headed by the PRI Esteban Villegas, who, although Juan obtained the victory under the flag of The PAN, PRI, PRD alliance is not a PAN militant.

While in the last elections, the PAN lost another state, which was Yucatán with the Morensite Joaquín Díaz Mena, so now the party only leads four states: Aguascalientes, Chihuahua, Guanajuato and Querétaro.