On July 20th, Marcelo Ebrard re-launched the political current Progressive Movement within PRD, without the involvement of Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador. In the face of the difficult situation that opposition parties generally live in, the birth of new currents within them could be interpreted as a potential source of conflict (as is the case of PAN). Nevertheless, when it comes to Mexican left, this is its natural way of regrouping itself. For the former Mayor of Mexico City, it\u2019s the right time for its intention, firstly, to win PRD\u2019s leadership and, afterwards, position himself in the national sphere for the 2018 Presidential elections.<\/p>\n
The first good news for Ebrard was the concurrence of his movement\u2019s foundation act. Even L\u00f3pez Obrador and the current Mayor of Mexico City \u2013 neither of them are PRD members nowadays \u2013 were notable absences, most of the relevant currents within PRD and its allies were represented. Besides, Jes\u00fas Zambrano, the party\u2019s national leader, and Cuauht\u00e9moc Velasco, leader of Mexico City\u2019s Civic Movement, one of the highlights was the presence of National Democratic Left, represented by Dolores Padierna (or, in other words, the strongest force in PRD\u2019s bastion within the city), as well as loyal Ebrard supporters, Senators Mario Delgado and Manuel Camacho Sol\u00eds, his political godfather. What does this Progressive Movement re-launch mean?<\/p>\n
At first sight, PRD members appear to be constructing the figure of their new chieftain, third in line for succession after Cuauht\u00e9moc C\u00e1rdenas and L\u00f3pez Obrador. Regarding the latter, his separation from PRD and his intention to convert his very own Movement of National Regeneration (MORENA) into a political party will ease the path for Ebrard when the time comes for PRD to announce his \u201cbest man\u201d for the coming years. Simply put, Ebrard\u2019s political option will not compete with voters of MORENA, that is to say, those who are closer to the middle-lower class and who perceive the lowest income \u2013 without mentioning their more belligerent nature. Likewise, a rupture between Ebrard and L\u00f3pez Obrador seems out of the question: if it didn\u2019t occur in the background of the 2012 leftwing Presidential nomination it will less likely happen now that L\u00f3pez Obrador has the control of his very own political \u201clittle parcel\u201d (using public funds). Secondly, the existence of the Progressive Movement expands the ideological sphere of Mexican Left and diversifies the options available to its voters. Ebrard appeals to a public that has yet to be capture by any political party: middle-class homes (with middle and higher incomes), highly educated, with productive working age, reformers and with several interests in creating networks of social security.<\/p>\n
In addition, we have a leftwing with several fractions in its place: the radical content within MORENA; PT and the Civic Movement as a sort of communicating vessels (the former, more inclined towards radical left and the latter, sometimes flirting with moderate right), and a PRD that embraces a pluralistic left, but which tends to Ebrard\u2019s more progressive view. In the immediate future, the first major opportunity of unifying the left will come with the discussion of the energy reform. Not even the Pact for Mexico will serve as an excuse for inner breakup, given that PRD, from Zambrano \u2013 who signed it \u2013 to Ebrard \u2013 who has voiced his opposition to it \u2013 knows that embracing the antique rhetoric of defending \u201coil sovereignty\u201d is profitable with their clientele and voters. Ultimately, reforms have the numbers needed to \u201csurvive\u201d the rejection of the left.<\/p>\n
That being said, the experience of Roberto Madrazo\u2019s PRI leadership \u2013 and what that meant in terms of controlling his party\u2019s resources and tools \u2013 proves that there is no secure way in the path of a party\u2019s candidacy, let alone an electoral victory. The ability of the party\u2019s several leaderships to add strengths and build a candidacy from the roots and sotto voce will be much more important. Enrique Pe\u00f1a Nieto proved that, currently, Mexican politics are built brick by brick: from the roots and adding up until every other competition is blurred.<\/p>\n
CIDAC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On July 20th, Marcelo Ebrard re-launched the political current
\nProgressive Movement within PRD, without the involvement of Andr\u00e9s
\nManuel L\u00f3pez Obrador. In the face of the difficult situation that
\nopposition parties generally live in, the birth of new currents within
\nthem could be interpreted as a potential source of conflict (as is the
\ncase of PAN). Nevertheless, when it comes to Mexican left, this is its
\nnatural way of regrouping itself. For the former Mayor of Mexico City,
\nit\u2019s the right time for its intention, firstly, to win PRD\u2019s leadership
\nand, afterwards, position himself in the national sphere for the 2018
\nPresidential elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[30],"class_list":["post-3382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-weekly-political-analysis","tag-political-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3382"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4346,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3382\/revisions\/4346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}