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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | June 2006 
Welfare Plan Hit by Criticism
 Wire services - El Universal
| | Mexican presidential candidate Felipe Calderon, center, of the National Action Party (PAN), smiles surrounded by photographers after a meeting with Mexican sports figures in Mexico City, Mexico, Monday, May 29, 2006. Mexico's top two presidential candidates, Calderon, and Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), appeared to be tied for the first time in the campaign about five weeks before the July 2 election, according to a poll published Monday. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull) |
Calderón says López Obrador´s economic plan would cause a crisis.
Felipe Calderón, the presidential candidate from President Vicente Fox´s Nation Action Party (PAN), on Wednesday said his rival´s economic plan will spark inflation and cause the kind of economic crisis that plagued Mexico the past three decades.
Calderón said the economic plan presented by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a former mayor of Mexico City, Tuesday night - which includes boosting the income of people who earn less than 9,000 pesos (US$793) a month by 20 percent - was "demagoguery."
"It´s like throwing gasoline on the fire," Calderón, 43, said in an interview with Televisa. "This would lead Mexico to another economic crisis like we´ve had in the past."
In spots aired simultaneously on all major TV channels Tuesday, López Obrador promised to give subsidized power and basic goods to poor families to increase their income by up to 20 percent.
"The program will generate social peace and prosperity," he said.
Calderón and López Obrador, who are statistically tied in presidential polls, are trying to sway undecided voters ahead of the July 2 election.
López Obrador, 52, said in his TV advertisement that the income increase will spark more consumption, which in turn, will lead to more production, employment and growth. The subsidy plan will cost 80 billion pesos (US$7 billion) and will be funded by reducing government spending, Rogelio Ramírez de la O, López Obrador´s chief economic adviser, said at a news conference Tuesday.
"My proposal means that from the start of my government, your family income improves by 20 percent and your buying power increases," López Obrador, who led in all major opinion polls for the past two years until late April, said in the ad. "The economic model I´m proposing is in your best interest and is the safest for our country."
Ramírez claimed the handouts would cost about US$7 billion. The government would obtain most of the money by cutting the salaries of government workers, particularly the top earners, he said. López Obrador has promised to draw half the salary of Fox, who was paid US$238,000 last year.
In a poll published Tuesday by Consulta Mitofsky, the two candidates each had support from 34 percent of the 1,400 registered voters polled from May 23 to May 28. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
In the last economic crisis in 1995 following a currency devaluation, annual inflation surged to 52 percent and the economy shrank more than 6 percent.
Calderón and López Obrador, along with three other presidential candidates, will take part in a televised debate on June 6 to discuss their economic plans. |
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