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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | September 2005 
Fox Calls for Stronger Democracy
 S. Lynne Walker - Copley News Service
| | Security officers patrol the bridge which connects to the National Congress, to prevent protesters from disrupting the fifth State of the Union address by Mexico's President Vicente Fox. {Photo: Associated Press) |
Mexico City – President Vicente Fox issued an urgent plea to Congress last night, asking legislators to set aside political differences and help him build a solid democracy in the final months of his presidency.
Fox acknowledged in his fifth state-of-the-nation address that he had failed to set the tone for compromises that would lead to much-needed judicial, energy and social security reforms. But he said the sharply divided Congress had also fallen short of drafting legislation that responds to Mexico's needs.
"We have constructed too many walls and too few bridges," Fox said. "Without dialogue there is no agreement; without agreement there is no progress."
In his last annual address before the July 2 election to replace him, Fox portrayed himself as a democrat who is willing to set aside personal interests to resolve the country's most pressing problems.
"Let's embrace common causes," he told Congress. "The events of these past five years have taught us a lesson. No one who acts alone will achieve great accomplishments."
Fox abandoned the time-honored practice of offering up a mind-numbing recitation of all the schools, hospitals and highways constructed by the federal government over the past year.
Instead, he devoted his 43-minute speech to his vision for Mexico.
The Congress, in turn, was less raucous than in years past, although some legislators held up signs mocking the president and one lawmaker stood up and strapped on a Pinocchio nose.
"Today, the mandate in Mexico is to unite, not to confront and divide," Fox said. "Today, society's mandate is to construct and advance rather than to hinder and retreat."
He singled out poverty as "the greatest challenge facing Mexico."
Fox also said the country's law enforcement institutions must be redesigned so "they are able to combat crime more effectively."
But Fox cautioned that "this is not a problem that began yesterday, nor can it be resolved in a day."
"He has a rising crisis on his hands in terms of public safety in broad reaches of the country, especially in the north along the border where you have this worrying rise in crime and narco-related violence," said political analyst Federico Estévez.
Lawmakers blasted Fox during speeches last night for failing to curb unemployment, for the country's sluggish economic growth and for being unable to bring crime under control.
But they insisted they were prepared to work with the president to reach accords, if he was willing to meet hem halfway. "If there is a willingness on the part of the president to have a dialogue, then we accept," said Congressman Enrique Burgos of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, whose party lost its 71-year hold on the nation's top office to Fox five years ago.
Fox has tried to counter criticism with a series of TV and radio spots filled with the straight talk that won him the presidency in July 2000.
In the spots, he reminds Mexicans that he cannot force Congress to pass his programs.
"You didn't elect a king or a dictator," Fox says as he stands next to a Mexican flag. "You elected a democratic president. And . . . that is what I am."
In recent weeks, Fox's popularity has soared. Two polls published yesterday by Mexico City's leading newspapers showed Fox with a 61 percent approval rating.
But "there's no taking away the fact that his party and his government were unable to engineer the kind of political horse trading that any minority government has to be able to do to get more of the agenda passed," Estévez said.
Fox is using the spots to offer an "apology for the things that have not been achieved," said Jorge Chabat, an expert on politics and international affairs at a Mexico City think tank.
"He is very, very concerned about his image, about trying to be up in the polls, but not about political effectiveness."
Fox's National Action Party will pay the price when voters go to the polls next July, Chabat said. "People like the president. But at the same time, they think he's ineffective, and they're not going to vote for his party again," Chabat said. "People are going to say, 'OK. You brought us democracy. Thank you. Now we want someone else.' " |
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