On April 28th, the second Mexican presidential debate of 2024 was held. Click here to see the transcript of the debate.
I’m reminded of a Spanish-language proverb: El prometer no empobrece — El dar es lo que aniquila – “To promise does not impoverish — To give is what annihilates”.
These three candidates were making plenty of promises, without bothering to explain how it would all be paid for.
The three candidates: Claudia Sheinbaum of MORENA and allies, Xochitl Galvez of the PAN/PRI/PRD coalition and Jorge Alvarez Maynez of the Movimiento Ciudadano party.
An April 14th Bloomberg poll tracker had the candidates with these percentages:
Sheinbaum 58% ; Galvez 33% ; Alvarez Maynez 9% .
The second debate was held April 28th.
Source: Debate Sinaloa
The strategy of each candidate was predictable.
Claudia Sheinbaum, of the incumbent MORENA party, is for a continuation of the policies of current president AMLO, the so-called Fourth Transformation.
As an opposition candidate, Xochitl Galvez has to attack the current government, especially Sheinbaum’s term as Mexico City mayor.
Jorge Alvarez Maynez, the only male candidate, represents a small political party, is way behind in the polls and is about 25 years younger than the two female candidates, who ignored him.
These factors made Jorge seem like a younger brother trying to steal attention from two talkative older sisters. So Jorge made a lot of promises! One was a “cultural scholarship” for young people which would give them money to attend concerts. Sounds nice.
The two women, the front-runners, went at each other hammer and tongs, ignoring poor little brother Jorge.
Xochitl called Claudia the Candidate of Lies and accused her of stealing a house.
All three candidates held up signs from time to time. One (held by Xochitl) simply read “Claudia lies”.
While Claudia was talking, Xochitl was holding that sign up and was called out by moderator Adriana Pérez Cañedo, who told her you can’t hold up a sign when it’s not your turn to talk.
Xochitl skillfully responded to a question about the economy by talking about extortion.
She said that “the criminals charge protection money from avocado producers in Michoacan, sugar producers in Veracruz and chicken distributors in the state of Mexico. The MORENA party has abandoned you by not fighting the criminals… as president I am going to punish the criminals, the extortion is going to end.”
How big an effect will this debate have on the outcome of the election? It’s a little over a month away.