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 Editorials | November 2006 
So Goodbye at Last Mr Fox
 Jo Tuckman - The Observer
| | At the start of his term the cowboy boot wearing President Fox's informality was deemed a breath of fresh air after decades of imperious solemnity. |
So it finally really is goodbye Vicente - and it's been an odd farewell. This week Mexico's President Vicente Fox will hand over the sash of office to his protégé Felipe Calderon after an emotional, hot-tempered, gaffe-filled and controversial farewell that has lasted months.
With the country beset by a range of political and security crises, the head of Mexico's first democratically elected government after seven decades of one party rule has been touring the nation pronouncing everything ship shape, the future sunny, and himself the happiest of soon-to-be-retired politicians.
That message and its accompanying heartfelt tributes vary little whether Fox addresses peasants or businessmen, or even the stiff military top brass who he promised to 'carry with me in my heart'. At the start of his term the cowboy boot wearing President Fox's informality was deemed a breath of fresh air after decades of imperious solemnity.
Today his speeches prompt titters among the chattering classes, particularly when they mention his wife - Marta Sahagun - 'that iron lady' and inspiration whose 'only vocation is to love and to help others'. The former spokeswoman, who married the president in 2001, is accused of unbridled political ambition while her adult sons allegedly indulged in shameless influence peddling.
Fox's sweet farewells were briefly interrupted last month when he addressed the nation to accuse senators of kidnapping him after they blocked his last international tour. The president had planned to visit Australia - Mexico's 32nd commercial partner and home of one of his daughters. Further damage to gravitas was delivered by a video showing Fox settling down to an interview and remarking: 'I can say any old stupid thing ... I'm leaving anyway.'
But whether sugar-coated, tetchy, or flippant, the president's long goodbye has been lambasted by many observers as inappropriate, given the number of volatile situations still on his watch. The southern city of Oaxaca is occupied by federal police whose presence has failed to resolve a bloody conflict between radical leftists and an authoritarian governor.
A barbaric turf battle between drug traffickers rages on. This week one group took out a full page newspaper advert to boast of being behind a series of decapitations, including five heads that were rolled on to a disco dance floor. Preparations for president elect Calderon's swearing in ceremony in Congress on Friday include a cordon of giant metal barriers and soldiers sleeping in the underground car park. Opposition leftists allege Fox engineered an electoral fraud in favour of Calderon and are committed to sabotaging the event.
Still for all the accusations of frivolity, fantasy and fiddling while the country burns, the president does have his fans who point to years of economic stability, increased the buying power for the lower middle classes, and cemented press freedoms. And even Fox's severest critics give him credit for defeating the entrenched one-party regime in 2000. |
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