The advance and the triumphs obtained by Morena during the past elections are not the result of the work of its national leader, Mario Delgado, but of the role played by the electoral structures close to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, experts agreed.
“Mario Delgado shows his face, he is the formal president of Morena, but really those who are making the party’s decisions are people close to the President of the Republic and all the operators who have been consolidating throughout the six-year term,” said Salvador Mora Velázquez , specialist in electoral processes at UNAM.
The expert added that many of the achievements obtained by Morena throughout the last electoral processes are also thanks to the dynamics and experiences of those groups that have come out of other political parties, mainly the PRI, and who found a place in Morena.
“These electoral advances are not due to the influence of Mario Delgado, but rather due to the influence and ability to act of characters from other parties that are allowed to be dominant actors on their state stages,” he said.
The academic considered that Delgado fulfills his role of assisting in the processes, but has not ceased to be seen as an actor who is strongly associated with Marcelo Ebrard.
It is thus, he added, that within his party he is not seen as a strategic figure who can join the president’s cabinet once his term as national leader is over.
For his part, Gustavo López Montiel, a professor at the Tecnológico de Monterrey, considered that Mario Delgado became a controversial leader in Morena largely because he is actually occupying a space for Marcelo Ebrard’s political project.
“Mario Delgado fulfills that role of trying to control a large part of the party structure, largely to facilitate Marcelo Ebard’s access,” he said.
However, he recalled that there is a pending leadership renewal process, so an important struggle is coming, with a Mario Delgado who may play a more symbolic role for Morena in the future.
“His leadership was questioned, but it served for what it is: to process candidacies,” he added.
The scenarios for AMLO’s party
López Montiel warned that because Morena has two large groups within it: the so-called founders, who are those characters who came from the hand of López Obrador since he belonged to the PRD and another recently created group, who are those who have come to the party, fundamentally of the PRI, because it is a space of triumphs, once the presidential succession begins, a possible internal conflict is looming in Morena.
“Many groups in the states began to see Morena as a structure that could have a certain electoral capacity and many groups moved away from the parties.
“In reality, these two large groups now coexist due to the leadership of President López Obrador, however, with the beginning of the presidential succession, confrontations are expected to begin, because on the one hand, the group of founders supports the head of government, Claudia Sheinbaum and, on the other hand, the most recent group, do not necessarily reject it, but they do not see it as a political force,” the expert said.
However, he maintained that the newcomers are the ones who really maintain Morena’s electoral capacities, so if they are dissatisfied with the presidential candidacy they can move to other partisan spaces.
“All these groups are there because they see Morena with electoral capacity and victory, but if this capacity begins to decline, these groups also move elsewhere.”