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 Editorials | February 2006 
Outgoing Leader Stays on the Road
 Adam Thomson - FT.com
Something seems to be bothering Vicente Fox. His large tanned hands are clasped tight as he sits in a small office of his presidential aircraft and responds to questions with long answers that give the impression of a man struggling to leave no issue untouched.
It is not the easy, relaxed attitude you might expect from a president now in his sixth and final year and with approval ratings at or around 70 per cent – one of the highest in the region.
Moments later, the restless Mr Fox has changed out of his formal dark suit and tie and is wearing an open white shirt and Ralf Lauren chinos as he inaugurates micro-businesses in Mexico’s impoverished south.
As he cuts a ceremonial ribbon at a plant producing animal feed – the owner tells his guest of honour that the food is designed for farm animals and fighting cocks – Mr Fox addresses the modest crowd. “It is not often that you will see a president of the republic opening small businesses,” he says. “But enterprises like this are the backbone of Mexico’s future.”
Mr Fox’s critics, who include much of the national press, believe such visits are simply electioneering in disguise. Mexico’s strict electoral laws forbid politicians in government from campaigning on behalf of their preferred candidates.
Felipe Calderón, a candidate from Mr Fox’s centre-right National Action party (PAN), is lying second in a tight race for the presidency that will be decided on July 2. Many believe Mr Fox’s recent appearances around the Mexican hinterland are designed to boost Mr Calderón’s chances.
Mr Fox rejects the criticism. “I always said that I wouldn’t sit behind my desk?.?.?.? I have visited all Mexico’s states more than 30 times during my presidency, so there is nothing new in what I am doing now,” he said. Indeed, he argues that such visits have been the trademark of his style of government since day one and that he has worked tirelessly to improve the lot of Mexico’s poorest.
He can also claim with some authority that macro-economic stability has consolidated under his watch. This year the government is working on the basis of a balanced budget, country risk has tumbled 74 per cent since 2000, the year Mr Fox took office, and inflation was just 3.3 per cent last year – below that of the US.
He argues that this achievement, which he bases on continuity of public policy, has set Mexico apart from the region. “I have maintained – Mexico has maintained – 10 years of very solid macroeconomic policy, and today we are seeing the results.”
Such consistency has also made Mexicans better off, he says. Low inflation and falling interest rates, in particular, have prompted an explosion in house-building, particularly in low-cost housing for Mexico’s poorer citizens. According to Mr Fox, more than 750,000 houses will be built this year compared with just 200,000 five years ago.
“The middle class in Mexico is growing by the day.” Mr Fox admits that growth has been “insufficient” and he blames Congress, which he says has often “been more concerned with party or individual interests than those of Mexico”.
Others, however, blame what they describe as the president’s lack of political experience and, in particular, his inability to sell much-needed structural reforms to the legislature. Over the past five years these have included two failed attempts at passing fiscal reform and opening up the energy sector to private investment.
What is Mr Fox’s priority over the remaining 10 months? Many would imagine it would be a thus-far elusive deal with the US on immigration. Illegal immigration is rising and recent US moves to toughen border controls have irked Mr Fox.
But faced with the question, he cites education, which he says is undergoing “a revolution” in Mexico, in particular a programme that will equip every public classroom in the country with electronic blackboards.
“That will be the most important legacy of this government: to ensure that the generation that today is in the country’s public schools will be the last generation to have experienced poverty.”
It is a worthy goal but, with the lack of progress on structural reform, it is one that many still believe is a long way off. |
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