López Obrador’s attack on electoral institutions looks more and more like Don Quixote’s fight against windmills…
Last week, President López Obrador presented the announced political-electoral reform initiative. After the resounding defeat of the so-called Bartlett Law – the proposal for constitutional changes to reestablish CFE’s monopoly power in the electricity industry – anyone would think that the 4T would take a tactical pause. Finally, a few days ago, the Congress of the Union entered the long summer recess.
However, President López Obrador seems to be in a hurry. Time is running out for him to carry out the regime change that he has been talking about since the beginning of his government. Therefore, he could not wait any longer to present the initiative for changes to 18 constitutional articles related to electoral matters.
The proposal was not built on the basis of dialogue with the political parties and under the coordination of the Secretary of the Interior, as used to happen in the past. Apparently, it came directly from the offices of Pablo Gómez and Horacio Duarte, veteran electoral operators of the PRD, to whom the 4T “did justice” by putting them at the head of the Financial Intelligence Unit and the National Customs Agency, respectively. Adán Augusto López, the tenant of the Bucarelli mansion, served as another witness at the ceremony.
Before the content of the initiative, it is striking that the President of the Republic presented it, without having any prior agreement with the opposition in Congress or a political strategy to advance it in Congress. A week earlier, the Tabasco politician had branded the opposition legislators as traitors to the country and unleashed a lynching campaign against him. Now, he puts the political-electoral reform project of the 4T in his hands, because without the votes of the PRI or the PAN, no constitutional reform initiative can pass in Congress.
Why is López Obrador exposing presidential authority in a political battle that he has lost? The sharpest critics of him see in the initiative, which includes the disappearance of the INE, one more cunning of the political lizard from Macuspana, Tabasco. They warn that the 4T electoral reform proposal only seeks to distract public opinion and divert the national conversation away from the serious problems plaguing the country.
They may be right, and if they were, it would just be more of the same. Throughout his government, López Obrador has used the mornings to unleash scandals that attract the attention of the media. His political communication style can be summed up in one sentence: to get out of a crisis, another crisis is needed.
There is, however, a more worrying reading of what is happening in the National Palace. President López Obrador squandered the enormous political capital with which he came to power. As he enters the twilight of government, he is overcome with desperation to go down in history; to see his image printed on a hundred-peso bill.
The politician from Tabasco has taken over an excessive appetite for glory, which leads him more and more to lose contact with reality. He repudiates critical voices and rewards the blind loyalty of the incompetents and opportunistic sycophants who form his inner circle. López Obrador’s attack on electoral institutions looks more and more like Don Quixote’s fight against windmills.
The opposition has unanimously rejected the electoral reform initiative announced by President López Obrador. Not even the political parties allied with Morena, the PT and the Green, have come out to defend her. Even for them, passing it would mean signing their own death warrant.
*Professor at CIDE.
Twitter: @BenitoNacif
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Dr. Benito Nacif is a professor in the Political Studies Division of the Center for Economic Research and Teaching (CIDE). He was Electoral Counselor of the National Electoral Institute (INE) from 2014 to 2020 and of the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) from 2008 to 2014.