Antonio Navalón
It has been a long time since politics ceased to be a rational element and became a curious reaction that is absolutely fleeting and variable according to the different trends of the moment. The revolution in technology and freedoms we have lived through since the beginning of the 21st century has installed new paradigms that are momentarily installed in the consumption of high-end technological products. These are paradigms whose realities of implementation and exercise of power are transferable to any human manifestation, especially to politics.
The new challenge for producers and consumers is not just about having the best technology. It is about being the first to permeate and flood the market. It’s about being all-encompassing and on everyone’s mind. If you can do that, your technology – regardless of what the competition offers – can be considered the winner. In this society that changes and reinvents itself every day, it can be said that while people like what is good, it is also true that they like what others consider to be new or the best. And so it happens in the different areas of our lives, not only in technology.
I increasingly believe that one of my closest friends is right when he says that there is only one thing more difficult than being ignorant and unfit for public life, which is to be able to feign ignorance and an inability to fulfill a program. Still, if you look closely, it is more of a race to see who is the first to achieve the objectives sought. That is to say, taking as an example the beginning of the recent race to obtain the triumph over Morena’s presidential candidacy in Mexico, it no longer matters what is sought to be achieved or how to generate a change in favor of society. In our country, as it happens with technologies, it is more important to be the first to get to the top than the method of getting there or what comes after achieving it.
President López Obrador has understood that the results – regardless of the propaganda campaigns – do not necessarily have to be favorable all the time, but that it is enough to have the results and statistics necessary to comply with his plans and his policies. That is why, after having celebrated with measure the triumph obtained in the State of Mexico, he has launched himself into a campaign to make it impossible for any other alternative or political offer to challenge him in the fulfillment of the finished product.
The dinner held last Monday, June 5, at the Porrúa bookstore led by President López Obrador was not only to celebrate the triumph obtained by Delfina Gómez but mainly to establish the rules of the game and the roadmap among the aspirants towards the presidential candidacy of 2024. Under the argument that he would not tip the scales or favor anyone in particular, that day began a new stage in the political life of our country with the sole objective of continuing to fulfill the objectives of the revolution – rather than the transformation – that the 4T has meant in Mexico. All this was agreed with the common understanding that they had to do everything possible to prevent any opposition that could even aspire to face the movement that began on July 1, 2018, and that seems that there will be no end in sight.
President López Obrador knows and is aware of the existing division in the country. And not only is he aware of it, but polarization has been one of the fundamental elements of his government. But he also knows that at this moment, he needs to implement a kind of blitzkrieg – as if it were a recreation of what was done by the Panzer divisions of the German army to break through the Maginot Line and the French lines of defense – to ensure that the opposition does not have the slightest chance of hope of winning in 2024.
The Morena campaign is the 2024 presidential campaign in its entirety. But this will not begin when next September 6 the next champion of the Fourth Transformation is appointed, but the electoral campaign actually began on July 1, 2018. So far, there has not been a single day, mañanera, or a single action that does not go according to the program that López Obrador has sought to impose on the country since more than thirty million people elected him President of Mexico. But not only that, all he has done since he first wore the presidential sash is to eliminate any yearning for aspiration from anyone who seeks to confront him.
Installed in the axis of our irrationality and without understanding the actual scope of the Fourth Transformation, its methodology, or the actual team of President López Obrador, we Mexicans have dedicated ourselves to being astonished uninterruptedly during the last five years. As we are on the verge of the sixth and last year of the presidential term, there are many elements to analyze; the problem is that time is limited.
In this context, there is no room for more surprises, and this is how power is built. The PRI wants the whole chariot but without concessions. It is one thing to win the presidency by default of the other party – as it happens now – and another to win the whole thing. The only novelty is that the complete chariot will be assigned to avoid separation and internal division.
The contest begins, and what will be a kind of hunger games starts. Anything goes; the only thing that is not valid at this point is to continue recognizing the extreme failure of the so-called opposition. However, it is necessary to recognize the role and performance of a player such as the Movimiento Ciudadano party. Its performance this year has been remarkable and notorious. However, it has failed in something fundamental: to consider channeling the citizens’ reaction to translate it into practical political action. Now, with a limited space of time and a significantly reduced margin of action, there is no choice but to place and set up a different method of analysis of reality if anyone wants to transform it. Unless the long-awaited miracle is achieved, Mexicans seem to have no other option but to stop wondering where we stand and accept that the continuation of the 4T is simply inevitable.
Who will be the new leader of Morena? It will be decided on September 6. Who will be to the right of López Obrador, acting as a sort of political Waze? It will also be known on that date. But, beyond putting a face to the chosen one and eliminating any illusions of the opposition, the most important thing is to ensure the program’s continuation. It will be very curious to see how from this point on, everything will revolve around the candidate elected to defend the 4T and on whom will fall the responsibility of continuing what the President has done, assuming there is room for him or her and that they have a role or a proposal to make beyond the one dictated by Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Today Mexico has no other proposal than the one presented by Morena and its leader, or at least that is the intention, and that is the belief that prevails or is sought to be imposed in our country. However, life teaches us daily that we must always be prepared and that there is always room for surprises. Since the surprise factor is as important or more important than what we control or plan.
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