Editorial: The Triumph of “Bad Mood” in Mexico
It is clear that, through their vote, the Mexican people are punishing the government for all the corruption, the crisis and the disappearances.
Los mexicanos en el exterior podrían votar prácticamente todos los cargos en México. Crédito: Mario Guzmán | EFE
The recent election to choose governors in Mexico was a disaster for the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (Revolutionary Institutional Party, or PRI) and a rejection of President Enrique Peña-Nieto’s work. The “bad mood” of the voters with the country’s current state manifested through the historic triumph of the Partido de Acción Nacional (National Action Party, or PAN) and the low turnout.
The PRI, who controlled 9 out of 12 states at the beginning of the election season, lost 6 of them. Among those, Veracruz, Quintana Roo, Durango and Tamaulipas had been PRI territory for more than 80 years.
This is also the first time that the PAN has won more than 3 new governors in the same election. In the 4 states mentioned above, the road to the opposition’s victory was paved by the alliance of the PAN and the PRD.
For the Left, it was not a day to remember, as they did not win in any state. The closest they came to victory was through the success of Andrés Manuel López-Obrador with his Movimiento de Regeneración Nacional (National Regeneration Movement, or Morena) over the PRD in the election for the constituent assembly in Mexico City, where 70% of voters did not exercise their right. The candidate also obtained a second place in Veracruz.
While these results may give Morena’s candidate hope looking at the 2018 general election, it spells bad news for the PRI, whose downfall began in 2012, precisely when Peña-Nieto took the helm.
The corruption scandals, the economic hardship and incidents such as the disappearance of the 43 students in Iguala have projected an image of a government disconnected from reality. That is the root of the punishement inflicted by the People at the ballot.
Still, the extremely high abstentionism, which reached 55.33% in its best scenario in Puebla, is a symptom of the frustration of the voters towards the current political environment.
Peña Nieto once alluded to the Mexican people’s “bad mood,” which he considered unjustifiable due to the fact that, according to him, the country was better than before. The days of the PRI at the presidential palace at Los Pinos are numbered if the Party is not capable of admitting its responsibility regading this generalized sentiment, which manifested itself last Sunday in the polls.
