The challenge is complicated but the reward could be historic. Three women aspire to turn Morena into something other than simply a new PRI: Claudia Sheinbaum, Ariadna Montiel, and Citlali Hernández. Difficult, because beyond political will and good intentions, there is a powerful inertia that would lead to turning the party into a renewed edition, but ultimately equally rotten, of what the tricolor was in the last century. An inertia fueled by at least three factors. One, the fact that Morena is a huge placement agency. In that sense, the party is a victim of its own success; for any politician, regardless of their convictions, or lack thereof, access to power today predominantly passes through this organization. And since efficient political operators are so regardless of their ideology, every ambitious person with skills ends up being a useful cadre for the party. The consequence is obvious; the movement becomes diluted of its ideals.
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Two, the need for electoral victories and/or to mobilize the social base and show muscle causes a strong addiction to leaders of corporations, unions, or neighborhoods. No one like them to fill plazas, have licensed operators, divert unsupervised resources, exponentially increase membership. Just recall Morena’s absurd goal of achieving 10 million members in record time (they ended up with 12 million), a quantitative demand to the detriment of the qualitative, that is, loss of identity. The leader of the SNTE immediately promised enrollment close to two million union members. Figures like him, like Napito Gómez leader of the miners or Pedro Haces of the CATEM become a necessary evil, but end up becoming increasingly powerful. They use their strength within Morena to obtain positions, seats, and benches, which in turn offer them additional shielding, because the party will eventually need their votes in Congress.
Three, the territorial fragmentation of political power turns the party into a lax manager of its own banners, because regional presence depends on the idiosyncrasy of figures with local pull, power, or charisma, not necessarily related to the movement. The national leadership requires enormous operational capacity, continuous attention, and tolerance to electoral defeat to aspire to a minimum of ethical or ideological congruence. In practice, the opposite usually happens; in order to add victories, the party ends up being hostage to such figures.
All this will be faced by Ariadna Montiel and Citlali Hernández, former cabinet collaborators, sent by the president to try to clean up Morena and turn it into a house consistent with a movement that has ambitious ethical and social ideals.
In another text I pointed out that the choice of the two figures could not have been more apt. Besides being very close cadres to President Claudia Sheinbaum, they have an impeccable trajectory regarding Obradorismo, which grants them legitimacy among the bases and authority regarding other power actors within the movement. Irreproachable both for the National Palace and for Palenque. But above all, they are two capable figures proven in different tasks. The new president of Morena, Ariadna Montiel, has been, as is known, the manager for almost eight years of the operational structure on which the social transfer system of the Fourth Transformation government is built. A loyal and efficient administrator, little given to hallway politicking, with enormous organizational capacity. Commander, moreover, of the so-called Servants of the Nation, the operational column and muscle of the movement.
For her part, Citlali Hernández is probably the most lucid cadre of this political force. She fuses, better than anyone, reflective ideological conviction and a modern notion of democracy, capable of surviving the demands of political reality. If there is someone who can find a formula to balance ethical ideological congruence and political and electoral effectiveness, it could be her and her team.
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The slogan, then, consists of purifying the party, adjusting values and practices with the movement and, at the same time, offering electoral results. To put it in football terms, Morena has been able to win consistently, sometimes in a rushed and embarrassing way (just remember Cuauhtémoc Blanco in Morelos), now it is required to play nicely and with good results. One should ask what the degree of tolerance for defeat will be. The best intentions can derail in the face of recriminations arising from the loss of positions currently held by the party.
There will be no miracles; what is achieved will be the result of a long crusade, without guarantee of final success. There will be partial victories and defeats along the way. For now, there is an inevitable route. First, the difficult candidate selection process, starting with the dispute for candidacies to the 17 state governments that will be decided in the remainder of the year and, later, thousands of positions for congresses and municipalities. Sheinbaum and the two women will measure their strength against the pressure of governors and other leaders determined to place their people, regardless of the movement’s interests. An important chapter of this task will lie in renegotiating, in practice, the relations of the 4T with PVEM and PT, electoral and legislative allies as uncomfortable as necessary. In the National Palace there is the perception that Morena has conceded too much in previous negotiations. To their misfortune, they are indispensable to govern because the designed rules make it difficult to create decisive majorities for a single party. Another complicated task.
And then there is the work of reorganizing reliable structures region by region and training cadres that respond to a new ethics consistent with the movement’s aspirations.
And finally, it will be necessary to see how they resolve the thorny issue of the Servants of the Nation and the party operators. The temptation to transfer entire government structures to party tasks will be enormous; hopefully they resist it, because if they do not, they will have given reason to those who claim it will end up being a new PRI. These three women will try to show us otherwise. @jorgezepedap
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