With 39% of the electoral preferences, Claudia Sheinbaum has won Morena’s internal poll and will become the presidential candidate of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s movement in the 2024 elections. It will be the first time that a woman enters the race for the presidency of Mexico as the clear favorite. The former head of government of the capital, who has enjoyed a political career spanning more than 20 years alongside current President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has almost a year ahead of her to consolidate her own project. It moves with the wind and supports the overwhelming inertia of Morena, which has won one victory after another in every election date in just six years. Indeed, Sheinbaum’s biggest challenge will be to prolong and consolidate the López Obrador phenomenon. In contrast, the opposition has also supported a woman, Xóchitl Gálvez, who has come back to life after a long journey through the desert following López Obrador’s stunning victory five years ago.
The triumph of the capital’s former president was marred by the angry reaction of Marcelo Ebrard, who, hours before the end of the voter poll, denounced serious irregularities in the poll conducted by Morena and called for its reinstatement. At the outstanding event this afternoon, the Morena leadership appeared flanked by all internal participants except Ebrard. A huge sign at the back of the stage reading “United for Transformation” looked dingy. As announced, the former chancellor achieved 26% of voting preferences in the party survey and in the “Spiegel” surveys conducted by four independent companies.
Third place went to former Interior Minister Adán Augusto López with an average of 11% of preferences, followed by MP Gerardo Fernández Noroña (of the PT) in a close fourth place with 10.6%; Green Party Senator Manuel Velasco came in fifth place with 7%; Last place was taken by Senator Ricardo Monreal, leader of Morena in the Senate, with 6%. These positions promise the loser a place in Sheinbaum’s government if he wins the 2024 elections, according to the agreement signed between all participants so that they receive all consolation prizes and remain united. It’s difficult to count on Ebrard right now.
As planned, Sheinbaum will soon receive the “baton” of the left movement from López Obrador and go to the presidential elections on June 6, 2024, where he will face PAN Senator Xóchitl Gálvez. If things continue as they are, Mexico will be governed by a woman for the first time in its history.
Ebrard’s political future is now the great uncertainty, as the former chancellor has distanced himself from the party leadership and assured that he will not accept any consolation prizes or any position in the party. Her next steps in political life have yet to be announced. The opposition has not stopped winking at him in recent months, and perhaps the citizens’ movement is also a possible welcome place for the former foreign minister, after the seemingly announced break with Morena. As a means of containment, the president of the Morenoist National Council, Alfonso Durazo, and 22 governors have proclaimed democracy, which they say has prevailed throughout the internal process.
Ebrard called Morena national president Mario Delgado a “coward” while his supporters shouted “fraud!” in the hotel where they were concentrated. In his conference, he said that in 2011 he was satisfied with a similar internal poll and declared López Obrador – with whom he was competing for the presidential nomination at the time – the winner without any problems because the process was clean at the time. Gerardo Fernández Noroña, another candidate who took part in the Morenista internal elections, admitted in a statement on Wednesday that there were problems and discrepancies in the poll, but assured that they did not represent a significant number that would change the final result would.
Ebrard’s shock sparked an opposition that immediately disqualified Morena’s trial with thick adjectives. “Fraud, violent and fraudulent, a circus and a farce,” PRI chief Alejandro Moreno said in a statement. “They are incompetent and incompetent, they cannot carry out an internal process in peace. “They do not have the moral quality to speak on behalf of the people when they do not even respect their own militants.” Moreno thus recovered his health after he himself eliminated his own candidate, Beatriz Paredes, from the Frente Amplio contest withdrew and declared PAN Senator Xóchitl Gálvez the winner before the results of his polls and primaries were known. The gesture brought him a lot of criticism, including from his own side.
Morena went ahead of all his political opponents and the law itself to initiate the internal process that would lead to the selection of his leading man to succeed the charismatic president. For this reason, they had to invent an ambiguous formula that would not punish them and they decided that they would not talk about candidates, proposals or elections, but rather about who would be responsible for leading the party and its project of transforming the country in the following years. months. The official announcement of the winner is scheduled for Sunday at an event with senior party officials.
The journey there was not without external and internal criticism. Sheinbaum must now deal with a battered party and try to put the pieces back together to achieve a successful outcome in the 2024 elections, where they will not only strive to win the presidential election but also improve the results that They are now preventing them in the legislature from making reforms. of greater importance. The possible departure of Ebrard and the anger of his supporters do not make this task easy, but the party had already been warned in the last few hours. The former Chancellor warned: “We will not remain silent.”
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