The President, her party and the contours of power

Arturo Cano

La Jornada Newspaper
Wednesday, October 2, 2024, p. 5

In the beginning it was a letter, the letter A. Only what is named existsstated the President of Mexico in her first speech.

The 4T had been making its overwhelming majority felt at the San Lázaro site for quite some time, in a ceremony that was a party, a farewell and a welcome.

With the letter A already well placed, Claudia Sheinbaum began to unfold the contours of her power, and she did so with an act of generous loyalty: without any loophole she praises the work and the figure of the man who had just shed the presidential sash, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

one of the greats, the most important political leader and social fighter in modern history, the best president of Mexico.

The venue shook, again, with the classic shout: It is an honor to be with Obrador.

The President continued: in terms of people’s affection, the figure of López Obrador is only comparable with Lázaro Cárdenas.

Among the guests, and in his capacity as head of the Presidency’s office, was Lázaro Cárdenas Batel, who did not applaud a single time when the Morenoist legislators received the outgoing president.

Shortly before, the teacher Ifigenia Martínez had fulfilled, supported by López Obrador and Sheinbaum Pardo, and at 94 years old, the task of receiving and delivering the symbol of presidential power.

After the seamless recognition of López Obrador, the newly minted President referred to the immediate future of her predecessor: “he is retiring from public life as a democrat and Maderista, to continue fighting from another trench, to write… it has been an honor to fight with you; “Goodbye, brother, friend, companion…”

Sheinbaum’s speech – 45 minutes long, since his most important message was reserved for the Zócalo – was preceded by a long farewell given by the legislators of the 4T: shouts, small tumults, desire to touch him, photos at bulk.

On the other side, in the opposition ranks, there were no shouts or banners or boos. In the morning, the protests were outside the Legislative Palace, in the pickets of workers of the Judicial Branch who shouted: dictator, dictator!behind the police cordons.

The hubbub of Morena and its allies contrasted with the silent civility of the opponents, who spent six years denouncing hell and fell silent when faced with the greater devil.

At the inauguration of the first female president, the opposition limited themselves to denying applause.

Before the arrival of the outgoing and incoming, the parliamentary groups established positions. The representatives of the opposition spoke in different tones, with a commonality that can be summarized in three words: let’s seek reconciliation.

With the Citizen Movement, former governor Ivonne Ortega, Sheinbaum, spoke will have sisterhood, not complicity. The PRI knows how to dialogueclarified Alejandro Moreno. All the interventions of the parliamentary groups, including that of Ricardo Monreal (coordinator, coordinator!their people shout at the slightest provocation, or without it), were heard in the middle of the revelry, with the legislators hugging each other and taking souvenir photos.

In another sector of the venue, the applause, if there was any, was measured. It was box A, next to the space for foreign dignitaries and intended, to put it briefly, for the machuchones.

It was the place for names like Alejandro Baillères, Altagracia Gómez, Roberto Alcántara, Bernardo Gómez, Olegario Vázquez Raña, Daniel Chávez, Rogelio Zambrano, Carlos Hank González, Emilio Azcárraga and Carlos Slim, to name a few. Several of them turned to look with a strange look on the journalist Federico Arreola, included who knows why in the list of that section.

From box A, some guests from the economic power observed with some annoyance the 4T rally celebration, and some other details. For example, to Minister Norma Piña, president of the Supreme Court, who throughout Sheinbaum’s speech kept one elbow on the furniture, in a challenging or sober attitude, depending on how you want to see it, and who acknowledged receipt of the message without making gestures.

If the objective had been for the president to control the Supreme Court, we would have carried out a reform in the style of (Ernesto) Zedillo. No. That is authoritarianism, we are democrats. We want corruption to end in the Judiciary.

Norma Piña was located in the place corresponding to the Judiciary in the gallery. He took his place and did not turn to see López Obrador. From the sound they asked the attendees to stand up because the President was arriving. But the arrival was delayed and while everything was celebrating around the outgoing president, the minister was there, standing alone, until PAN deputies noticed the scene and lined up to hug her.

The President arrived. Before speaking, he approached Piña and greeted her with a hug and kiss. The hard lines of the speech would come later. The new forms, the forms of the TOthey had started.