On the Mexican general election of 2018-el PRI es institucional no mas
The Mexican general election of 2018 resulted in the most wholesale change of power in the history of Mexico, even accounting for the 2000 general election which marked an end to 71 continuous years of power by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which once dominated Mexican politics in a similar way to Fianna Fail dominating Irish politics, but on a greater scale and with even more cronyism (and often electoral fraud).
The PRI slumped to a poor third place in the Presidential election, with its presidential candidate Jose Antonia Meade securing 16.4% and failing to win the vote in any Mexican states, and coming second in only a minority of Mexican states. They also crashed to third place in the Senate, dropping from 55 seats to a lowly 14 out of 128. Even more devastating was their performance in the Chamber of Deputies (the lower chamber of the Mexican Congress), where they won just 42 seats, down from 204 in 2015. This means they lost 80% of their deputies, suffering a loss even larger than that suffered by Fianna Fail in Ireland in 2011. More importantly, they won only 6 of the 300 single member constituencies up for election, which was not significantly compensated by their 36 list seats. Their previous low was 121 deputies in 2006, finishing third behind the Party of the Democratic Revolution, Mexico's main social democratic party. This year, the PRI fell to an even lowlier fifth position in the Chamber of Deputies, with the Christian conservative Social Encounter Party and socialist Labour Party each securing more seats (58 and 61 respectively). The PRI also failed to win a single governorship in Mexico for the first time in its long history.
The left-wing Juntos Haremos Historia (which means "Together We Will Make History" in Spanish) was the decisive winner of this election, with its presidential candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, winning 53.19% of the vote avoiding the need for a runoff; this is the first time in 30 years a candidate has won a Mexican presidential election in the first round. Both the PRI and PAN tried to claim MORENA would turn Mexico into a "second Venezuela", all to no avail. Senor Lopez is the first socialist candidate since Lazaro Cardenas de Rio to win a Mexican presidential election, and his party, MORENA (National Regenerational Movement) is inspired by many of the major reforms President Cardenas carried out during his tenure from 1934 to 1940, and the significant reforms Mexico still needs. President Cardenas' son, Cuahtemoc Cardenas, founded what is now the PRD, and MORENA drew in large numbers of its lapsed supporters. PRD suffered a significant collapse as well, dropping from 53 seats to just 23 seats, or just 4.6% of the 500 seats in the Mexican Chamber of Deputies. It is now only the seventh largest party in the Chamber of Deputies, having in the past consistently finished either second or third. MORENA, meanwhile, won 193 seats, nearly 2 1/2 times that achieved by the main conservative Mexican opposition party, the National Action Party. The Social Encounter Party won over large proportions of its older urban base, especially in smaller towns, meaning the National Action Party lost 28 seats bringing it down to just 79. Nevertheless, due to the rout of the PRI, PAN still finished second in both the national elections and presidential election, although Ricardo Anaya still only polled 22.26%. The reactionary and controversial Jaime Rodriguez Calderon, meanwhile, who notably supported a return of capital punishment and a few other arguably extreme measures, managed only 5.23% as an independent candidate in the presidential election.
The "Ecologist Green Party of Mexico" (in reality a front for the business interests of the Gonzalez family, owner of the Farmacias Similares drugstore franchise; it is not a true Green Party) paid the price for its alliance with the PRI, going down to 17 seats, and Mexicans are now seeing the party for what it really is. Environmentalism has sadly been a neglected issue in Mexico, due to the more pressing social problems of high crime rates, especially relating to violence by drugs gangs, deep-rooted corruption, and worsening poverty in rural areas. The New Alliance Party, founded by the largest Mexican trade union, was almost wiped out, losing all of its list seats with its leader being its only remaining representative.
Many parallels can be drawn between this election and the 2011 Irish election. The PRI has been defeated to such an extent it is unlikely it will recover in the near future, and Mexico has become truly a multi-party state as the Republic of Ireland now has. In 2016, Fianna Fail only recovered 24 of the 57 seats it lost in 2011 and still finished second behind Fine Gael despite the severe unpopularity of the Fine Gael coalition (Fine Gael lost 27 seats out of 76 and Labour 30 out of 37) and its austerity policies. With the PRI being tainted with the reputation of old Mexican cronyism and just being an unprincipled party of power, it is highly unlikely to make a comeback in the near future. The PAN and MORENA, meanwhile, neatly represent both sides of much of the Mexican electorate and will likely result in Mexico transitioning politically to a "red/blue" (i.e. social democratic/moderate conservative) system similar to that found in most European countries with some element of party list proportional representation (Mexico uses a mixed member proportional system, with 300 single member constituencies and 200 list seats). The exciting possibility of very significant change did not greatly enthuse the Mexican electorate, however-turnout was just 63.43%, an increase of a mere 0.35% from the last election. Endemic corruption and misappropriation of public funds by politicians at all levels, as well as repeated violence against political figures (over 130 were killed during the course of the 2017-18 Mexican presidential campaign alone, almost entirely by drug cartels) still deters a large proportion of the Mexican electorate from turning out to cast their ballots.
The PRI slumped to a poor third place in the Presidential election, with its presidential candidate Jose Antonia Meade securing 16.4% and failing to win the vote in any Mexican states, and coming second in only a minority of Mexican states. They also crashed to third place in the Senate, dropping from 55 seats to a lowly 14 out of 128. Even more devastating was their performance in the Chamber of Deputies (the lower chamber of the Mexican Congress), where they won just 42 seats, down from 204 in 2015. This means they lost 80% of their deputies, suffering a loss even larger than that suffered by Fianna Fail in Ireland in 2011. More importantly, they won only 6 of the 300 single member constituencies up for election, which was not significantly compensated by their 36 list seats. Their previous low was 121 deputies in 2006, finishing third behind the Party of the Democratic Revolution, Mexico's main social democratic party. This year, the PRI fell to an even lowlier fifth position in the Chamber of Deputies, with the Christian conservative Social Encounter Party and socialist Labour Party each securing more seats (58 and 61 respectively). The PRI also failed to win a single governorship in Mexico for the first time in its long history.
The left-wing Juntos Haremos Historia (which means "Together We Will Make History" in Spanish) was the decisive winner of this election, with its presidential candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, winning 53.19% of the vote avoiding the need for a runoff; this is the first time in 30 years a candidate has won a Mexican presidential election in the first round. Both the PRI and PAN tried to claim MORENA would turn Mexico into a "second Venezuela", all to no avail. Senor Lopez is the first socialist candidate since Lazaro Cardenas de Rio to win a Mexican presidential election, and his party, MORENA (National Regenerational Movement) is inspired by many of the major reforms President Cardenas carried out during his tenure from 1934 to 1940, and the significant reforms Mexico still needs. President Cardenas' son, Cuahtemoc Cardenas, founded what is now the PRD, and MORENA drew in large numbers of its lapsed supporters. PRD suffered a significant collapse as well, dropping from 53 seats to just 23 seats, or just 4.6% of the 500 seats in the Mexican Chamber of Deputies. It is now only the seventh largest party in the Chamber of Deputies, having in the past consistently finished either second or third. MORENA, meanwhile, won 193 seats, nearly 2 1/2 times that achieved by the main conservative Mexican opposition party, the National Action Party. The Social Encounter Party won over large proportions of its older urban base, especially in smaller towns, meaning the National Action Party lost 28 seats bringing it down to just 79. Nevertheless, due to the rout of the PRI, PAN still finished second in both the national elections and presidential election, although Ricardo Anaya still only polled 22.26%. The reactionary and controversial Jaime Rodriguez Calderon, meanwhile, who notably supported a return of capital punishment and a few other arguably extreme measures, managed only 5.23% as an independent candidate in the presidential election.
The "Ecologist Green Party of Mexico" (in reality a front for the business interests of the Gonzalez family, owner of the Farmacias Similares drugstore franchise; it is not a true Green Party) paid the price for its alliance with the PRI, going down to 17 seats, and Mexicans are now seeing the party for what it really is. Environmentalism has sadly been a neglected issue in Mexico, due to the more pressing social problems of high crime rates, especially relating to violence by drugs gangs, deep-rooted corruption, and worsening poverty in rural areas. The New Alliance Party, founded by the largest Mexican trade union, was almost wiped out, losing all of its list seats with its leader being its only remaining representative.
Many parallels can be drawn between this election and the 2011 Irish election. The PRI has been defeated to such an extent it is unlikely it will recover in the near future, and Mexico has become truly a multi-party state as the Republic of Ireland now has. In 2016, Fianna Fail only recovered 24 of the 57 seats it lost in 2011 and still finished second behind Fine Gael despite the severe unpopularity of the Fine Gael coalition (Fine Gael lost 27 seats out of 76 and Labour 30 out of 37) and its austerity policies. With the PRI being tainted with the reputation of old Mexican cronyism and just being an unprincipled party of power, it is highly unlikely to make a comeback in the near future. The PAN and MORENA, meanwhile, neatly represent both sides of much of the Mexican electorate and will likely result in Mexico transitioning politically to a "red/blue" (i.e. social democratic/moderate conservative) system similar to that found in most European countries with some element of party list proportional representation (Mexico uses a mixed member proportional system, with 300 single member constituencies and 200 list seats). The exciting possibility of very significant change did not greatly enthuse the Mexican electorate, however-turnout was just 63.43%, an increase of a mere 0.35% from the last election. Endemic corruption and misappropriation of public funds by politicians at all levels, as well as repeated violence against political figures (over 130 were killed during the course of the 2017-18 Mexican presidential campaign alone, almost entirely by drug cartels) still deters a large proportion of the Mexican electorate from turning out to cast their ballots.
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