MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's new president extended a reconciliation hand Monday to more than a third of the population who did not vote for her, but the first woman to hold the job faces a tough road to reconciliation in a country deeply divided under outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Prime Minister Claudia Scheinbaum has pledged to continue the political course set out by her populist predecessor, despite widespread discontent over continuing cartel violence and poor economic performance.
“Although the vast majority of our people supported our plan, our duty will always be to look after every Mexican, without distinction,” the president-elect said in his victory speech after the long-delayed first vote tally showed Lopez Obrador won in a landslide victory that surpassed the vote share he won in 2018.
With about 78% of the votes counted, Sheinbaum had received about 59% of the vote, nearly double the number of votes cast by his second-place rival, Xochitl Galvez, who received about 28%.
“There are many Mexicans who are not entirely in favor of our project, but we must walk in peace and harmony,” Sheinbaum said.
Mexico City's central square, the Zocalo, erupted with applause and cheers early Monday as Claudia Sheinbaum, expected to be Mexico's first female president, spoke to the crowd and raised her fist. (AP video by Fernanda Pesce and Amaranta Marentes)
But with four months until Sheinbaum can take office, Lopez Obrador appeared determined on Monday to push through highly controversial constitutional changes before he leaves office on Sept. 30, many of which opponents fear would fatally weaken Mexico's democracy.
Lopez Obrador's Morena party, which he founded and is personally much more popular than Sheinbaum, appears poised to secure the two-thirds majority needed to amend the constitution. He has already announced 20 proposed changes to the constitution that he plans to introduce, including abolishing independent oversight and regulatory agencies.
For some people in Mexico, that's a problem.
“The climate of political polarization has worsened under the current administration,” Moody's Analytics director Alfredo Coutinho said in a report on Monday. “The country is deeply divided and will require the political leadership of the new president to restore national unity.”
For now, President Lopez Obrador exudes an air of celebration rather than vengeance, but for most of his six years in office he has showered far more scorn on journalists and opponents than on the country's uncontested drug cartels.
“This is truly historic,” Lopez Obrador said of electing Mexico's first woman president. “We are living in exceptional, extraordinary and glorious times.”
A supporter of ruling party presidential candidate Claudia Sheinbaum holds a flag with the words “We Won” in Spanish after the general elections in the main square, Zocalo, in Mexico City, Sunday, June 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Matthias Delacroix)
President-elect Claudia Scheinbaum addresses supporters in Mexico City's central square, Zocalo, early Monday, June 3, 2024, after the National Electoral Commission announced she has an irreversible lead in the election. (AP Photo/Matthias Delacroix)
Lopez Obrador also reiterated his promise that he would not try to govern from behind the scenes after he leaves office, but would instead leave it to Sheinbaum to govern.
“Let me be clear: at the end of my term I will retire and never again take part in any public or political activity,” he said.
Scheinbaum, Climate Scientist The former Mexico City mayor has vowed to continue Lopez Obrador's policies and gave little indication in her victory speech on Monday of how she might influence the presidency. Her calm personality contrasts with Lopez Obrador's down-to-earth populism and has made her Mexico's Male-dominated political culture.
Sheinbaum said Sunday night that her two rivals had called her to concede defeat in an election that guaranteed Mexico would make history. The two leading candidates were women, Sheinbaum said. Jewish Background He leads a predominantly Catholic country.
Sara Rios, 76, a retired literature professor at Mexico's National Autonomous University, said she was confident Mr. Scheinbaum would reconcile the country.
Presidential ballots are stuffed into a ballot box during general elections in Mexico City, Sunday, June 2, 2024. (Photo by Associated Press/Ginette Riquelme)
A voter holds out his arm to show where a polling staffer has marked his number outside a polling station during the general election in Mexico City, Sunday, June 2, 2024. Election staff at this downtown polling station have devised a numbering system to determine when the number of ballots available at a polling station reaches 1,000. (AP Photo/Ginnette Riquelme)
“The only way we're going to move forward is by working together,” Rios said. “She's trying to work and move forward to bring peace to the country, but it's a slow process.”
The election was widely seen as a referendum on Lopez Obrador. Expanding social programs But for the most part Failed to reduce cartel violence In Mexico, the 61-year-old Sheinbaum is unlikely to enjoy the kind of unquestioning loyalty that Lopez Obrador enjoyed.
In Mexico City's main square, the Zócalo, Mr. Sheinbaum's lead did not draw the kind of cheering, jubilant crowds that greeted Mr. Lopez Obrador's victory in 2018. The turnout was enthusiastic but relatively small.
Chef Fernando Fernandez, 28, was among the relatively small crowd hoping Scheinbaum would win, but even he acknowledged there were problems.
Election officials and poll watchers count votes after polling stations close during the general elections in Mexico City, Sunday, June 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Matthias Delacroix)
“You are voting for Claudia, for AMLO, based on your beliefs,” Fernandez said, calling Lopez Obrador by his initials, like most Mexicans.
But his biggest hope is that Scheinbaum will “fix what AMLO couldn't: gas prices, crime and drug trafficking, which he didn't fight despite his power.”
Scheinbaum emphasized that it has been a long and arduous journey to have a woman become president.
Supporters of ruling party presidential candidate Claudia Sheinbaum embrace after voting ends in the general elections in the main square, Zocalo, in Mexico City, Sunday, June 2, 2024. (Photo by AP/Ginette Riquelme)
“I did not come alone,” she said, “we all came with our heroines, our mothers, our daughters and our granddaughters, who gave us our country.”
