The weekly newsletter of the México Solidarity Project
June 16, 2021/ This week’s issue/ Meizhu Lui, for the editorial team
A big event! The preparation takes the most time, the resources, teamwork, focus, enthusiasm. That holds true for all big events, whether they be weddings or holiday celebrations. We’ve all been there. Elections have the same elements, only far more complex because you can never make elections just your event. You’ve got competitors who are going all out to make the elections their event.
Morena activists began their prep early for the Mexican midterm elections. Long before the June 6 Election Day, they jumped into races, touted the departure from business-as-usual under Morena leadership, and hit city streets and dirt roadways. The parties opposing Morena were preparing as well. They put aside differences and joined strategically together, totally focused on spoiling Morena’s fiesta.
Finally, the day of the elections. The right’s strategy falls short, even with the media predicting doom if Morena won and the Catholic Church actively pushing against that possibility. The opposition parties fail utterly to persuade voters that going back to pre-Morena days would be a good idea. Midterms usually end with oppositions to governing parties gaining a majority. Not this time. Within Morena ranks, joy and celebration!
And then the day after. The fiesta has ended. Heads clear. People see they have a mess to clean up. Their next big event, they realize, needs to be better. In this week’s issue, we talk with Morena activist Pedro Gellert about what comes next, about how Morena must face that mess and now get its own house “back in order.”
Pedro Gellert, a veteran left journalist and translator, has been an active Morena rank-and-filer in México City since before the party became “Morena”! He brings a wide-ranging perspective to his analyses of Mexican politics.
The June 6 elections marked the midpoint of AMLO’s six-year, term-limited presidency, with all 500 seats in the Chamber of Deputies up for grabs. How did Morena do?
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