When you point with one finger, remember that the other three fingers are pointing at you.
english proverb
That the president advanced the presidential succession indicating his preferences to succeed him also opened the dispute over his party’s candidacy. Maintaining a permanent electoral campaign spirit seems to be the priority for the President.
However, that matter is irrelevant at this time for the national well-being given the seriousness of the growing problems that more and more Mexicans suffer.
No one can deny that during the 21st century those who have held the Presidency of the Republic, including the current President, owe it to the best electoral system we have, to the majority vote, as well as to the acceptance by the divergent minority. We put them in without the imposition of anything or anyone, only the popular vote.
That is why it is frustrating and unacceptable that they try to throw overboard our institutions whose construction required the participation of all.
During the second half of the last century, political reform and a new economy were promoted with a view to taking advantage of globalization to develop ourselves and build a future based on clear ideas of what we all wanted and want: to live better.
In the last decade of the last century, the transition to democracy was promoted in an orderly and concerted manner, the autonomy of the Federal Electoral Institute, now INE, and freedom of expression were strengthened. Practically all the political forces coincided in this transition, so that in 1997 the victory was achieved that was consolidated in 2000. That victory translated into the first democratic transition, into a Presidency of the Republic that, for the first time in 70 years , obtained a party different from the one that prevailed during the last century.
Since then, the renewal of the federal and local Executive and Legislative powers, as well as of the city councils, has occurred practically without incident.
With the transitions, the central power of the President was attenuated and limited. We had become freer. We built our democracy, but we did not learn to use its elements such as dialogue, debate, criticism, and tolerance in the face of plurality. We have not been able to adopt a culture of peace that allows us to negotiate, listen to the other or direct ourselves to the development so longed for by all and by all.
The President’s destructive obsession is part of the national tragedy that has made Mexico an increasingly poorer, more insecure, more polluted, more unhealthy, more polarized, and more politically divided country.
The 2021 electoral results modified the composition of the Chamber of Deputies, Morena and its satellite parties no longer had a qualified majority. From then on, the operation of the Chamber required hard political work that would allow the construction of agreements based on dialogue. However, the pro-government majority and the tenant of the Palace have been underestimating the opposition, relying on their hegemony, which did not turn out to be unbreakable.
The initiative that the President recently sent to the Chamber of Deputies seems to be an electoral miscellany with which —if approved— the way of integrating the electoral bodies and arbiters would be distorted and would centralize their operation. It also intends to eliminate local and municipal popularly elected positions, which would reduce the spheres of competence of local congresses and, therefore, would harm federalism.
It contains some elements that look attractive. However, throughout the initiative its main purpose is evident: to eliminate the public institutions that guarantee free, independent and equal democratic play in order to subordinate them to the Executive.
It is illogical that the President ignores that it is unlikely that his electoral miscellany initiative will be approved by the Permanent Constituent Assembly. It is predictable that he will spread his version of the rejection of his initiative by the Democratic legislators in order to confuse the citizenry and turn them against the INE and thus have a pretext to further weaken it. For example, reducing the resources in the expenditure budgets, as happened this 2022, in which the resources for the INE were reduced, by instructions of the President, without technical or legal grounds. In such a way that the fulfillment of the responsibilities that the law requires of that autonomous institution is hindered. The surprising thing is that this year he had to organize the revocation of the mandate, which only interested the Executive and his followers, as well as the local elections that will be held on June 5 in Aguascalientes, Durango, Hidalgo, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo and Tamaulipas. . Despite the fact that the opposition shows poorly articulated political parties, without discourse and far from ideas, it is hoped that their participation will be successful. Don’t lose sight of the fact that organized crime will most likely contribute to a greater distortion of these elections.
Our democracy is at risk in an atmosphere of intolerance and hatred, envy, slander and condemnation, which does not correspond to a normal alternation.
In accordance with the rule of law, elections must be free, fair and authentic. Citizens -with their vote- have designed balances and demand dialogue and cordiality.
Measures are urgently needed so that we take steps forward, not backwards, that is why in the sphere of the culture of peace we insist on how essential it is to give ourselves the opportunity of a cultural transformation so that the solution to controversies or conflicts can be found with the direct participation of those involved and thus build a better future.
Let us bet on generating a true culture of compromise in society and involving it in the culture of peace.
*The author is a lawyer, negotiator and mediator
Twitter: @phmergoldd
Lawyer and professional mediator
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