 |
|
|
 Editorials | Issues | November 2006 
Mexico’s Left Forms a Coalition
 Kenneth Emmond - MexiData.info
| | Lopez Obrador’s refusal to accept electoral defeat and his refusal even now to recognize Felipe Calderon of the National Action Party (PAN) as president-elect distance him from some powerful PRD members. |
What is FAP?
It’s the Broad Progressive Front (Frente Amplio Progresista), a coalition of Mexico’s three leftwing political parties, the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), the Convergence Party, and the Labor Party (PT).
Before the July elections these parties campaigned together as the Coalition for the Good of All, with Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador as their presidential candidate. On October 11 they formalized their status as a coalition.
It’s the first time a formal coalition has been created in Congress since enabling legislation was passed in 1977.
Antonio Gomez, a member of the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), says it’s good for Mexican politics. He thinks of coalitions as “consensus-building instruments” that could help to break voting deadlocks that stymied legislation in the past.
Horacio Duarte of the PRD concurs. “(It) allows the three parties in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies to have consistent visions and common strategies and to present a common front, and this will allow us to work much more effectively,” he said.
The three parties agree on a list of nine objectives. Most are motherhood-and-apple-pie items, but a couple stand out.
One is “transformation of the existing political regime.” That might or might not reflect Lopez Obrador’s vow to change Mexico’s institutions, and might or might not be good for Mexico, depending on what the changes are.
Another is to “recover the autonomy of the institutions, with respect to the special interests that have colonized the State, and return to a political system in accordance with the new plural reality of the nation.” Few would look askance at that goal.
There may be another, less obvious objective.
Lopez Obrador’s refusal to accept electoral defeat and his refusal even now to recognize Felipe Calderon of the National Action Party (PAN) as president-elect distance him from some powerful PRD members.
Governors of at least two PRD-led states, and congressional coordinator Javier Gonzalez, have said they would defy Lopez Obrador’s order not to acknowledge Calderon’s status, as they are willing to work with him. Party founder Cuauhtemoc Cardenas endorses that strategy.
Instead, Lopez Obrador arranged to have his followers anoint him Mexico’s “legitimate president,” with swearing-in slated for November 20, the anniversary of the Mexican Revolution.
One editorial-writing wag commented that would make him president of “Pejeland,” a reference to his often-used nickname, el Peje.
Lopez Obrador’s intransigence puts him in danger of being marginalized within the party.
The FAP coalition was the idea of Manuel Camacho Solis, once a heavyweight for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) but most recently a PRD member of the Chamber of Deputies.
Lopez Obrador might be able to use the FAP to turn the tables — to marginalize his opponents by shifting the focus away from the PRD to the coalition. If he succeeds, he may have another chance to run for president in 2012.
Meanwhile, the coalition can prepare a legislative agenda to enhance its prospects for gains in the midterm 2009 elections.
Whatever other effects the naming of Lopez Obrador as “legitimate president” and the formation of the FAP may have, there’s one constructive element — the creation of a “shadow cabinet” to monitor the administration’s activities department by department and publicize its shortcomings.
Shadow cabinets are commonplace among opposition parties in countries like Britain and Canada. Under the British Parliamentary system, most cabinet ministers are Members of Parliament, though they may also be recruited from the Upper House (the House of Lords in Britain, and the Senate in Canada).
Opposition party members can debate, question, harass, and even embarrass the government and its cabinet every day that Parliament sits. The daily Question Period, when the opposition controls the agenda, makes it hard for a government to sweep unsavory issues under the carpet.
In a republican system like Mexico’s, a shadow cabinet does not have the same opportunity to interact directly with cabinet members. It must be creative, using news conferences and public demonstrations to highlight what it believes to be errors and mismanagement being committed within the administration.
It can still be effective at keeping incompetent or corrupt members of government in the public spotlight.
Questions remain about the FAP coalition. How effective will it be? Can it avoid the divisiveness that afflicts most coalitions? How will the PRD conservatives respond to it? Will Lopez Obrador emerge as the party’s dominant force, or will power revert to the Cardenas faction?
The FAP is an experiment with real potential in Mexican politics, one that bears watching.
Kenneth Emmond, an economist, market consultant and journalist who has lived in Mexico since 1995, is also a columnist with MexiData.info. He can be reached via email at Kemmond00@yahoo.com. |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us