Applause to our deputies and senators, patriots!
ASSISTANTS: It’s an honor to be with Claudia today! It’s an honor to be with Claudia today! It’s an honor to be with Claudia today!
PRESIDENT OF MEXICO, CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM PARDO: In 2026, we will begin with greater intensity the improvement and repaving of all federal highways in the country.
Another of the great achievements of the Transformation is having recovered the nation’s energy companies.
During the neoliberal period they were in charge of dismantling Pemex and CFE, and handing over the resources to national and foreign private companies. Little by little we have been recovering them:
We changed Article 28 of the Constitution, and new laws for CFE and Pemex that are helping us strengthen to provide accessible energy for current and future generations.
Next year the construction of 5 Combined Cycle Plants will begin, as well as several renewable energy sources.
How can all this be done? How is it that it was not done before and now, there are resources to allocate to the people? With honesty, love for the people and the country.
ASSISTANTS: Chairwoman! Chairwoman! Chairwoman! It’s an honor to be with Claudia today! It’s an honor to be with Claudia today! It is an honor to be with Claudia today. Very much a President! Much President! Much President!
PRESIDENT OF MEXICO, CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM PARDO: Long live the Transformation of Public Life in Mexico!
What should be clear to us is that none of this would be possible with the neoliberal governments of the past or with the falsehood of conservatism. They have never believed in the rights of the people of Mexico, they have never loved the people.
Hidalgo said that: “his god is money.”
For us: our cause and our destiny is the well-being of the people of Mexico.
Friends and friends:
During this year, we have shown that we can have a good relationship with the United States, putting our principles at the forefront.
We reached an Understanding on security that establishes four clear principles at the beginning: Respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, shared and differentiated responsibility, collaboration without subordination, respect for national sovereignty.
To make it clear, I sent and the reform to Article 40 was approved in the Constitution, where it clearly says:
“The people of Mexico, under no circumstances, will accept interventions, interference or any other act from abroad that is harmful to their integrity, independence and sovereignty, such as coups d’état, interference in elections or the violation of Mexican territory, whether by land, water, sea or airspace.”
In short: Mexico is a free, independent and sovereign country! We are not a colony or protectorate of anyone!
On the other hand, in our business relationship, I am convinced that it will be maintained. Both economies need each other to be able to compete with other regions of the world.
And to our migrant brothers: we salute you from this vibrant Zócalo. They are heroes and heroines of the country. We will always support and defend them. They not only help their families, but are necessary for the development of our neighboring country.
Friends: In recent months, our political adversaries have dedicated themselves to building virtual realities on social networks, in opinion columns, that have nothing to do with the moment of Transformation that Mexico is experiencing.
I will mention a few:
One of the most popular and recent lies is that “Mexico is increasingly less democratic”; as if the Mexico of the past had been democratic.
They forget that during the entire neoliberal period we lived: the 1988 electoral fraud against the engineer Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas: the removal of immunity from López Obrador, one of the most authoritarian actions in recent history; the electoral fraud of 2006; the massive purchase of votes in 2012; to mention a few.
There are young people who did not live through that time, but then, there were no free elections.
They also forget that, in 1994, Zedillo changed the entire Court at a stroke and appointed one for his convenience.
We have always fought for democracy, and we continue to do so.
Thanks to the Transformation, today there is a plebiscite and the revocation of mandate, in addition to free, clean elections for the people of Mexico.
This year, together, we elect the new Judiciary. Democracy, Abraham Lincoln said: “is the power of the people, by the people and for the people.”
Another of the lies that they have recently spread is that “we are repressive governments.” Fake! We have always fought against repression and acted accordingly. We have never repressed the people. And if a public servant exceeds the limit, he is sanctioned. The repression occurred during the PRIAN era: that of the teachers, that of Atenco, to name just a few.
Another recent lie: that “there is no freedom of expression.” Fake! They slander and criticize the government in the media, networks, and there is not a single act of censorship that we have committed. Freedom of expression, of the press and of demonstration are respected.
One more lie: that “young people are not supported.” Fake! They were the ones who closed spaces for education and employment, when they called them “rejected” or “NEETS.” Now there are scholarships, more schools are being built and young people who are building the future are supported.
One more slander: that “the Transformation governments are linked to criminal groups.” Fake! They were the ones who started an alleged war against drugs and put García Luna in charge, who is today imprisoned in the United States.
In the Calderón and Peña period—we must remember—intentional homicides in Mexico rose 250 percent.
From 2018 to date, homicides have decreased by 34 percent.
Furthermore, peace and security are the fruit of honesty and justice.
One more lie: that “the concepts of homeland and freedom belong to conservatism.” Fake! They defend only the freedom of the market. They do not understand that freedom is only exercised when there are full rights, above all, the right of the people to live with dignity. That full freedom is exercised when there is well-being, and that cannot happen when everything is left to the market.
Furthermore, when they governed they exercised censorship and repression. Freedom with justice, which has been the desire of the people of Mexico since the Grito de Dolores, Hidalgo, is with the Transformation of Public Life in Mexico.
Full freedom only exists when we eradicate racism, classism, machismo and all kinds of discrimination.
Sovereignty and, therefore, the homeland have been defended by us at all times. We are heirs of Hidalgo, of Morelos, of Juárez, of the Mexican Revolution.
The country is not defended when foreign interference is sought in the destiny of the nation; the country defends itself.
Friends and friends:
This year, since the 2024 election, with the arrival of the first female President, we have made great progress in the recognition and empowerment of women:
We changed the Constitution and laws to advance full rights.
We have distributed 25 million Women’s Rights Booklets.
We build FREE Centers.
We opened the Women in History Room in the National Palace.
And on the civic dates of our calendar we recognized heroines of the country.
When I came to government I promised that we would all arrive, and we are fulfilling it.
We are together because we do not steal, we do not lie and we never betray the people.
But let me make a reflection:
Republican Austerity means reducing privileges and allocating public resources for the benefit of the people.
In our country, where the majority of citizens live with a minimum wage that is enough to cover the most basic things, there can be no moral, ethical or political justification for those who serve the people to live surrounded by luxuries or privileges; much less if they are assumed as part of a movement that we have promised, since our origin, to put an end to the abuses of power and transform the Public Life of the Nation.
The Fourth Transformation was born as a break with the old regime, not only with its practices, but also with its way of governing. It is about building or continuing to build a new ethics from power, where the public servant understands that he is never above the people, but at the service of the people; that governing is not about having privileges, but is a deeply human responsibility.
On this path, the Juarista principle of “just mediocrity” must be a lighthouse and must be a guide.
Benito Juárez, in his life and in his example, taught that the duty of those who serve the people is not to accumulate wealth or surround themselves with luxuries, but to live with decorum, without excess. Fair mediocrity means moderation, it means knowing that power is not flaunted, it is exercised with humility. Let us never forget those principles.
