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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | December 2006 
Mexico's New President Takes Over in Surprise Midnight Ceremony
 Bertrand Rosenthal - AFP
| | Felipe Calderon, pictured, took over as Mexico's new president in a surprise ceremony aimed at thwarting protests from leftist legislators in Congress. The unprecedented event, broadcast live on television, took place at midnight Thursday (0600 GMT Friday) at the presidential palace at Los Pinos (AFP/Omar Torres |
Felipe Calderon has taken over as Mexico's new president in a surprise ceremony aimed at thwarting protests in Congress from leftist legislators who insist he won the presidential election through fraud.
The unprecedented event, broadcast live on television, took place at midnight Thursday (0600 GMT Friday) at the presidential palace at Los Pinos.
"I am taking over the presidency of the republic, and with this the legitimate mandate to serve you for the next six years," Calderon, 44, said in a brief speech.
Tensions have been high in Mexico since leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador lost the July 2 election by less than one percent of the vote, and then led weeks of disruptive mass protests.
Leftist legislators with the opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) vowed to physically prevent Calderon on Friday from completing the swearing-in ceremony in Congress.
At the midnight ceremony outgoing president Vicente Fox handed the presidential sash - the symbol of the presidency - and a Mexican flag to a Military School cadet. Calderon then took the flag, but the cadets will keep the sash until the ceremony in Congress.
The new secretaries of Defense, Navy and Interior were also present.
"I have received the presidential offices from President Vicente Fox, the start of the process of taking possession of the presidency," Calderon said in his speech. "Later, I will go to Congress to take the constitutional oath."
Calderon, an attorney and former energy secretary, said he was "aware of the complexity of the political moment that we live in and of our differences, but I am convinced that today we must put an end to our disagreements."
"We are entering a new stage and for the nation's interest should overcome our differences," he said.
Wrangling rival legislators from Calderon's conservative National Action Party (PAN) and the opposition PRD remained camped out in the Chamber of Deputies, where the event is to take place later Friday.
On Tuesday, in mid-session, PAN and PRD legislators rushed for the chamber rostrum as fists flew. Calderon supporters got there first, but the opposition legislators camped out next to them and remain determined to protest the event.
The tactic has worked before: protesting leftist legislators took over the rostrum in Congress in September and forced Fox to deliver his state of the union address elsewhere.
PRD lawmakers have said they will let the ceremony go forward only if Calderon takes office at a different site and Fox does not attend.
Claiming fraud, Lopez Obrador, 53, a popular former mayor of Mexico City, has rejected Calderon as an "illegitimate president" who was behind a "coup d'etat" and was sending "Mexico's institutions to hell."
On November 20 he declared himself the legitimate president of Mexico, held a swearing-in ceremony and even chose a cabinet.
An early September poll shows that 74 percent of Mexicans are ready to accept Calderon as their new president, despite his razor-thin ballot box victory.
Thirteen presidents and dozens of foreign guests, including former US president George HW Bush - the current US president's father - are expected to attend the official.
President George W. Bush telephoned Mexican President Vicente Fox on Thursday during flight back from Jordan to wish him well as he leaves office, said White House national security council spokeswoman Kate Starr.
Dignitaries include California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose state borders on Mexico, his office announced.
However at least two inauguration ceremony guests - the presidents of Ecuador and Peru - canceled their visits at the last moment, giving different reasons.
Calderon takes over from Fox, also a member of the conservative PAN, who was barred from a second term in office. Fox's election in 2000 broke seven decades of single party rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). |
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