Ricardo Pascoe Pierce
Tomorrow begins the decisive stage of the 2024 electoral process with the presence of the Pink Tide in the Zócalo. Tomorrow starts the march of millions of compatriots to the polls, arriving on June 2 to cast their votes.
What is at stake is nothing more and nothing less than the future of Mexico. On that day, we will define whether we choose the route offered by AMLO and his clique, who are determined to continue demolishing the institutional scaffolding bequeathed to us by the Mexican Revolution. Morena proposes to walk towards a country with a cacique as a de facto ruler, where people are treated as if they cannot understand the truths of today’s world. The populism of left and right starts from the same premise: political power is deposited in one person, and institutions are a hindrance to the implementation of its policies. For this reason, they need to destroy the Legislative and Judicial Branches, which, they judge, take power away from them. They do not want to be accountable for the management of public money because people ask too many questions. Transparency in public administration is a hangover from the ill-fated neoliberal era.
The other route we will choose on June 2 is the one that proposes to resume the arduous but fruitful task of improving the democratic instruments at our disposal that ensure a democratic and liberal state. The core idea is to take from the Constitution the essential elements it proposes: a liberal State based on three Powers that balance each other, autonomous bodies that oversee, with the option of sanctioning, officials who deviate from the law and the constitutional order. In the liberal State, consensus building among social, political, educational, and business actors is based on the idea that sharing ideas and proposals is the right path to build what is best for the majority, with dialogue and tolerance. Transparency and accountability are fundamental pieces in the legal order that is proposed to be erected. The legislative function is essential in this task. Parliament is for talking and agreeing. It is time to leave behind this messianic notion that presidential initiatives cannot be changed, not even a comma. It is as absurd as it is ignorant to pretend not to talk and negotiate to generate the best possible initiatives. That is what the legislative powers are for.
Society is on the march toward its destiny.
The last weeks will be full of tension and confrontation. The electoral body recently made three decisions that suggest a pro-government bias.
First, it was decided that Lilly Tellez, candidate for the senate in Sonora, on behalf of the opposition, could no longer participate in a national radio program, arguing that it gave her an illegal advantage of overexposure. However, this same electoral body does not silence the President of the Republic when he speaks daily in the press conference in favor of his candidates. There is an evident preference for the ruling party.
Second, when the President of Morena demanded that tomorrow’s event in the Zócalo be counted for the opposition parties, even though they were invited to a citizens’ event, the President of INE jumped like a spring to endorse Morena’s position.
Third, when Morena asked to exclude the color pink from the citizens’ mobilizations, the President of INE immediately jumped in and announced her support for Morena’s position that citizens cannot wear pink clothes because they are INE’s colors. In this case, the Pink Tide has been wearing pink for years, and it has never been an issue. But, well, we are only a few days away from the elections, and anything can influence the final result.
These three decisions of INE make clear the inclination, at least of its President, for the ruling party. They show that the electoral body already has a problem embedded in its bosom: the lack of independence in its decision-making.
This concentration in the Zócalo is the signal for the citizens of at least 97 cities throughout the country and abroad to call tomorrow and every day from now until June 2 (two weeks) for a free and civic turnout, even to encourage the rebellion of the non-free citizens who will be forced to vote for the ruling party. Despite the stupidity of the INE, pink will continue to be the color that identifies the mobilized society on the march and armed with its intention to vote for democracy, for a country of laws that are respected, and for dialogue and transparency as guides to form a functional society.
We will march to the polls because that conviction will give us the Presidency of the Republic, the majority of the governorships at stake, including Mexico City, and a majority of deputies and senators in the Legislative Branch, mainly in the Congress of the Union.
Mexico is on the march to conquer democracy and freedom.
[email protected]
@rpascoep
Further Reading: