The economy is not growing, the Government faces a series of scandals, and the United States exerts aggressive commercial and political pressure. It is not a situation that the president has caused, but the truth is that it has happened despite her efforts. The country would probably be in an equally or more complicated position regardless of the party in power, but the fact is that Claudia Sheinbaum’s government is the one that must face it.
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It can be understood that, in the face of a context of contraction and uncertainty, both national and international, which translates into a path full of obstacles, the promised second floor of the Transformation Charter is subject to adjustments and revisions. But it would be regrettable to give in to the temptation to abandon important objectives, entrench oneself, and retreat to positions that refer back to the first floor. Not because one is good and the other bad, but because they correspond to two different moments. The country is different from 2018. López Obrador made a turn at the helm amid many resistances, went off course, and opened a path with a knife in hand, with pulls and tugs; he appealed to polarization that generated divisions and relied on whoever he could to install his national project. In hindsight, errors and inconsistencies can be pointed out, but he managed to tendentially reverse inequality and lift thirteen million Mexicans out of poverty; a feat in a country of privileges and deeply rooted differences.
The second floor, promised by Claudia Sheinbaum, also with a leftist trajectory but more modern and scientific, seeks to build and make society more efficient after the hard effort of conquering it. To move from the rough construction to building walls, gardens, and windows. That is, to organize and modernize, grow and generate jobs as well as distribute, unite efforts, curb violence and corruption. To convince the rest of society that we can build a house for everyone based on the premise “for the good of all, first the poor.”
It is obvious that it is not proving easy. In the face of criticism regarding what does not work or does not progress, there is an inertia in the Government to return to polarization, ideological entrenchment, and the exercise of power with partisan biases. It is an impulse that matches an inclination “to engage” that dwells in the president and tends to be exacerbated in the morning press conference. But in the end, decisions have been made thinking about her second floor.
Of course, there is an interventionist “imperialism,” an opposition that thrives on real or invented mistakes, and media and commentators seeking to erode the image of the 4T. But the real problems do not originate in these factors, no matter how much they try to take advantage of them. The stagnation of investment, lack of jobs, uncertainty, corruption, violence, insufficient resources have another origin.
Denying them, minimizing them, disqualifying those who mention them does not help build that second floor. For the most part, these are problems that the 4T did not generate; but by evading or minimizing them, as if they were essentially the product of the opposition’s bad intentions, it ends up owning them. The corruption scandals show this. The 4T promised an ethical change in public life and it is obvious that in its first version it decided to postpone it to finish conquering power (hence the unspeakable alliances, the inability to admit mistakes, prioritizing loyalty over efficiency, victory over any other consideration).
The second floor aimed to reorder priorities and fulfill some postponed banners. The risk now is that a defensive attitude in the face of adversities continues to postpone them. A step back only leads to worsening problems. The best protection of the movement is not polarization but obtaining results and cleaning up public life. The true defense of sovereignty does not lie in marching against interventionism, but in removing the pretexts for Washington’s interventionist impulses through a true cleansing of the upper echelons of the political class and the movement itself. Loyalty to the so-called Mexican humanism founded by López Obrador involves making viable a national project capable of growing and distributing better. None of this is achieved by entrenching oneself in the greatness and virtues of a movement that, in reality, needs the rest of the productive forces to be successful.
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A way forward is the only viable option for the 4T. If Morena’s image continues to erode, the only way to defend power will be to harden and use the government to protect what has been conquered, take refuge in the converts, favor the hard core, wrap oneself in the base and in denouncing the perversity of the conservatives. All of the above would be the end of the project.
However, the numbers indicate another option: the president’s popularity hovers around 70%, the inclination for Morena approaches 40%. Entrenching oneself in that 40% is absurd, especially when the productive forces that can generate employment to solve poverty are elsewhere and some are part of the 70%.
It is important that Claudia Sheinbaum approach her second floor with more confidence. There will be resistance among the circles that stayed on the first floor, those who assume that acknowledging a mistake or blaming a corrupt person is an inadmissible concession to the enemy, an unacceptable sign of weakness.
Trusting the second floor would mean betting less on propaganda, indignant defense, or rushed excuses. Reserving information about official projects is unworthy of a government that claims to emanate from the people; it is shameful that a head is accepted as unaware of what their collaborators were doing (Segalmex, Tabasco, Sinaloa), but the removal of an opposition governor is demanded with that argument; it is absurd to exonerate before investigating when it comes to one’s own; it is unbelievable to place someone in Pemex who had only accepted it for 18 months, it harms less to recognize the need for correction.
Insisting on safeguarding Morena’s unity at the cost of tolerating its weeds will end up mutilating this movement’s capacity to transform the country. A garden is poisoned and impoverished if the proper pruning is not applied.
But above all, nothing would dignify Morena more than a real will to clean the stairs from top to bottom, as promised by the first floor but never done. I am convinced that Claudia Sheinbaum has the integrity, capacity, and will to build a truly improved second floor of the 4T. Provided, of course, that the president does not lose confidence in herself and her project. @jorgezepedap
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