New Day in Mexican Politics
What seemed impossible just a few years ago happened Sunday in Mexico. Full-fledged democracy has finally arrived, breaking the political monopoly of the PRI, the Institutional Revolutionary Party. This was the result of a determined people voting for change.
Many congressional deputies, governors, senators and mayors were unseated in a tidal wave that split the country’s political power into three roughly equal parts--among the PRI, the center-left PRD (the Democratic Revolution Party) and the conservative PAN (National Action Party). President Ernesto Zedillo deserves credit for delivering on his promise of free and fair elections.
The capital has a new governor, the PRD’s Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, who has twice failed in runs for the presidency but now is Mexico’s second most powerful political figure.
The big surprise came in the vote for the Chamber of Deputies, in which the PRI lost the majority it had held for 68 years. It remains the largest party there, but without the numbers to impose its legislative agenda at will. PAN stands second in the chamber and the PRD a very close third.
The new lineup will force a change in the way Congress operates. In the old days, the PRI majority ensured passage of every presidential initiative. Now deals will have to be made in democratic give-and-take. For the first time in this century there will be a real separation between executive and legislative powers. Doesn’t that sound like democracy?
The new political leaders face a young electorate demanding answers to problems with no easy solutions. The voter believes the economy is now in worse shape than in the disastrous 1994 peso debacle. The ranks of the unemployed and the struggling self-employed are ballooning. Crime has risen to unmanageable levels. The education system is abysmal.
On Sunday night, with the announcement of the election results in the capital, a large crowd gathered in the Zocalo, Mexico’s City’s main square. When Cardenas appeared, the populace shouted time and again, “Don’t fail us.” He dare not.
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