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The PAN, PRI, PRD member, Bertha Xóchitl Gálvez Ruiz, was the weakest opposition candidate in Mexico in recent decades.
The results of the historic electoral process of June 2nd allowed a full house to run for the political coalition Let's Keep Making History, made up of the Morena, Green Ecologist Party of Mexico and Labor Party, and headed by the first future female president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo.
With figures from the District Computation of the 2023-2024 Electoral Process of National Electoral Institute (INE), the Virtual President, Sheinbaum Pardo, obtained a total of 35 million 924 thousand 519 votes, representing 59.75 percent of the total vote (surpassing by several million votes, the also historic figure obtained by the outgoing president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in 2018).
In a distant second place was candidate Gálvez Ruiz, who barely reached 16 million 502 thousand 697 votes, which represent 27.45 percent of the total electoral result.
The young candidate of the Citizen Movement Party, Jorge Álvarez Máynez, received a vote of 6 million 204 thousand 710 votes, that is, 10.32 percent of the Mexican vote.
For those of us who closely follow the electoral campaigns and the electoral process itself, it was no surprise that the “Plan C” project was consolidated, as the strategy was called for the Let’s Continue Making History Coalition to obtain the majority in the Executive and Legislative Branches.
It is clear that the size of the vote is the responsibility and obligation of the elected authorities to respond to the people of Mexico. For those who live in that country and the millions of compatriots who live in the United States, although the immigration issue is a separate matter.
One of the reasons, in my opinion, for the so-called Mexican opposition, made up of the former enemy and rival parties, obtaining terrible results, was the combination itself. How could a Mexican citizen imagine the PRI and the PAN together to obtain electoral posts? How could they imagine the PRD teaming up with the PRIAN to nominate candidates?
The Fuerza y Corazón por México Coalition, which nominated Gálvez Ruiz, was unnatural, unthinkable for Mexicans less than 20 years ago. It was like putting water and oil together, putting those three political forces in the same bag and nominating the “weakest rival.”
Since June 12, 2023, the date on which the senator and former head of the defunct National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples (a position she held during the Federal Government of Vicente Fox Quesada, between 2000 and 2006), appeared at the doors of the National Palace to try to personally confront President López Obrador, her fate was sealed.
It was López Obrador himself who put her on the national stage, it was López Obrador himself who made many Mexican politicians believe that there really was a dispute between López and Gálvez, and that what there was all along was an intention to position the former head of the Miguel Hidalgo delegation as a candidate so that Sheinbaum Pardo could also appear as a candidate.
President López Obrador promoted the candidacy of two women. One from his team and one who, at the time, sought all possible prominence. Only Claudia came to power.
The PRI, PAN and PRD did not learn from their electoral defeat in 2018. Although in that year the political alliances were composed differently, the PAN with the PRD, the PRI with the PVEM and Movimiento Ciudadano, agreements were already seen coming between political entities that in the past were antagonistic and that could not be conceived that they would participate together in an election.
The shadow of the stories of the national leaders of the PRI, Rafael Alejandro Moreno Cárdenas, questioned former governor of Campeche, as well as the leader of the PAN, Marko Antonio Cortés Mendoza, also made a dent in Gálvez Ruiz's campaign. Given the shady pasts of the party leaders, the famous phrase "don't help me, buddy" could very easily be applied.
Gálvez Ruiz's figure never fit. He made many mistakes. Faults in his speeches, poor image management, lack of proposals. In the three presidential debates he dedicated himself to attacking the one he knew was the most advantageous competitor, that is, Claudia, whom he apparently saw even in the soup, because he did not stop mentioning her name, to disqualify her, at every opportunity.
But why was Gálvez Ruiz the weakest candidate? It must be remembered that, in the internal process of selecting the presidential candidate, in this case, the female candidate, the PRI, PAN and PRD simulated an internal process in which Gálvez Ruiz and an old-school Mexican politician, a die-hard PRI member, Beatriz Paredes Rangel, former governor of Tlaxcala, former national president of the PRI, former federal deputy and current senator, among other positions, participated.
Paredes Rangel's handicap was undoubtedly her long career as a PRI member, at a time when the Mexican electorate has been rejecting the traditional parties, namely the PRI, PAN or PRD. However, that fact does not mean that she is not an outstanding Mexican politician, who could have given the candidate of Morena, PVEM and PT a better fight, although it would not have been enough to win, she could have acted as a better counterweight.
They simulated an internal process, through the famous finger pointing they decided on Xóchitl Gálvez and put her on the ship that would not reach a safe port.
It is enough to make a brief comparison between Xóchitl Gálvez and Claudia Sheinbaum. One comes from a less than outstanding career, in which even her academic preparation was questioned, as a federal legislator no important legislative proposals were made and in her time as head of the delegation, there was talk of mismanagement.
Claudia Sheinbaum is a woman of science. Prepared, even, a former student of the prestigious Stanford University, in California. With a career in academia and in important elected positions, such as having governed one of the largest cities in the world. There have been accusations against her and she has come out to clarify and deny them.
But to this panorama, it must be added that the opposition in Mexico, made up of the previously antagonistic parties; PRI, PAN and PRD, never listened to the electorate. The campaign was so disorganized that there were complaints about the lack of use of resources to promote the image of Xóchitl Gálvez. There are accusations against the party leaders, at least from the PRI and the PAN, that the campaign money was used for other things, that those resources were diverted.
The opposition, as before, dedicated itself to discrediting the López Obrador government, criticizing the social programs that were being promoted, such as: support for the elderly, student scholarships, and the elimination of intermediaries in delivering government support.
The people realized that, unlike what the PRI governments had been saying for more than 80 years and the PAN for 12 years, that there were resources to support the neediest classes, what was happening was that all those resources ended up in the very bulging bank accounts of the politicians in power.
The Mexican people were involved in political life. They were taught that their vote counts and that elections do not work like they used to, when people did not go to vote because “we already know that the same people as always are going to win.”
Even Mexicans living abroad went to consulates and embassies in various countries like never before to try to cast their vote.
Starting on October 1, the day Claudia Sheinbaum takes office, Mexico will have a woman as president of the Republic. This is the first time in 200 years of political life in that country.
Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo will govern Mexico from October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2030.
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