Claudia Sheinbaum, the candidate of the Mexican left, supported by outgoing president Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador (Amlo), is the new president of Mexico and the first female president of Mexico in its over 200 years of republican history.
Sheinbaum’s first thought was for her predecessor: «Thank you President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador. This June 2, the Mexican people once again gave a lesson in democracy and dignity, and once again we are making history. Via Mexico!”
Lopez Obrador commented: «Today is a day of glory because the Mexican people have freely and democratically decided that Claudia Sheinbaum become the first female president in 200 years of independent life of our Republic. Congratulations to all of us who have the joy of living in these stellar times of pride and transformation.”
Despite the violence, intimidation and murders that affected many left-wing candidates, the victory of the candidate Movimiento Regeneración Nacional (Morena), the Partido del Trabajo and the Partido Verde was overwhelming: the president of the Instituto Nacional Electoral (INE) , Guadalupe Taddei, indicated that, according to the first counts, Sheinbaum obtained between 58.3% and 60.7% of the valid votes, a result immediately recognized by the two main challengers, Xóchitl Gálvez, of the Fuerza y alliance Corazón por México, and Jorge Álvarez Máynez, of the Movimiento Ciudadano who congratulated the new president.
Gálvez obtained between 26.6% and 28.6% of the votes, while Álvarez Máynez stopped at 9.9% – 10.8%.
Addressing the Mexican people, Sheinbaum said: «I am grateful because, for the first time in 200 years of the Republic, I will become the first female president of Mexico. And, as I have said on other occasions, I do not arrive alone, we all arrive with our heroines that our homeland gave us, with our ancestors. Thank you today to the people of Mexico, this is your triumph, this June 2nd we made history again. Long live the Fourth Transformation! Long live Mexico!
The president-elect confirmed that she wants «A plural, diverse and democratic Mexico in which dissent is part of democracy. 21And even if the majority of people supported our project, our duty is and will always be to take care of every Mexican, without distinction, to guarantee freedoms of expression, of the press, of assembly, of demonstration and of mobilization. We are democrats and by conviction we will never create an authoritarian or repressive government. We will also respect political, social, cultural and religious diversity, as well as gender and sexual diversity. I will work for an honest government, not to be influenced, without corruption or impunity, it will be a government with republican austerity, financial and fiscal discipline and autonomy of the Bank of Mexico.”
After an electoral campaign marked by US interference to which Amlo responded harshly,
In foreign policy, Sheinbaum assured that she will seek to maintain a relationship of respect and collaboration with the United States (USA) and that above all she will extend cooperation with the nations of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The election of the first female president of Mexico is also good news for the environmental and climate movement and this will probably be the discontinuity with Lopez Obrador who has focused heavily on oil extraction and has not shown great attention to the environment.
In fact, the 61-year-old Sheinbaum is 61 years old, she is an energy engineer, she is the former mayor of Mexico City, elected in 2017 with a program based on the environmental sustainability of one of the most polluted cities in the world and against the violence of criminal cartels.
Sheinbaum is a climate expert and is one of the scientists who wrote the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and therefore the climate movement will have a careful friend in the presidency of one of the most important countries in the world. The next COP28 UNFCCC in Azerbaijan will be an opportunity to understand if Mexico will continue its social and environmental change that led the left to this resounding success in the first round.
