With the election of Claudia Sheinbaum as president of Mexico on Sunday June 2, the left remains in power, according to the results of three exit polls, released after the polling stations closed. The seasoned political leader and scientific author of the IPCC was elected with 58 to 60% of the votes, according to the first partial results announced by the National Electoral Institute (INE).
“I will not disappoint you”she promised after the announcement of the results, in her first statements to a television channel, announcing that her party had also won the “qualified majority” in Congress.
Claudia Sheinbaum was well ahead of former center-right senator Xochitl Gálvez, who received 29.1% of the vote. And yet, the candidate of the National Action Party (PAN) was at the head of an “Everything but Morena” coalition bringing together the conservative and liberal right, with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Democratic Revolution Party ( PRD). Centrist Jorge Alvarez Maynez was far behind, with 11.4% of the vote in this one-round election.
The left in power in Mexico
Thanks to the large majority obtained, Claudia Sheinbaum takes over from outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, of the Movement for National Regeneration (Morena), ending her mandate with a rate of 66% of favorable opinions, according to Agence France- Press. Since the left-wing President came to power in 2018, promising results in economic and social matters have fueled hopes of a possible victory.
During this mandate, numerous advances have been made: increase in the minimum wage, reduction in poverty, economic growth (3.6% in 2023), establishment of a minimum pension for people over 65, and a new approach to the fight against drug trafficking. The new president is committed to continuing this momentum. It will also have to face the problem of femicide, which represents an average of ten murders of women per day in 2023, according to UN figures, and the violence of drug trafficking which is corroding the country.
An election day marked by violence
And Election Day was no exception. Voters were also called upon to renew the Congress and the Senate. This Sunday, June 2, they had to choose the governors in nine of the 32 states and to appoint local deputies and mayors. During the vote, two people were killed in two attacks on polling stations in the central state of Puebla, a local government security source said.
A candidate for local elections had already been killed in the same state on Friday May 31. Another candidate for a minor mandate was killed in the night a few hours before the opening of polling stations in the west, according to the prosecution at Agence France-Presse. At least 25 candidates were assassinated during the campaign, according to the AFP count taken on Saturday June 1.
A long-time political and scientific leader
By voting in Mexico, the victorious presidential candidate greeted a “historic day “. Granddaughter of Jews who fled Nazism and poverty in Lithuania and Bulgaria, the one who became the first woman to take the head of state in Mexico confided that she had not voted for herself in the presidential, but for a pioneer of the Mexican left, Ifigenia Martinez, 93 years old, in tribute to her struggle.
Claudia Sheinbaum started out when she was in charge of the environment. She worked for current president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, mayor of Mexico City between 2000 and 2006. The young elected official is behind the construction of the second floor of the “ring road” to relieve congestion on one of the urban highways that cross Mexico City. She also launched bus lanes and bike lanes.
In 2007, the newly elected president, who is also a scientist, contributed to the work of the IPCC, which will receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. Her theme of expertise was the mitigation of climate change. The scientist was then elected mayor of the Tlalpan district, in the south of Mexico, between 2015 and 2017, then mayor of Mexico City from 2018 to 2023. She then had to manage the collapse of an overhead bridge as the metro passed through the south of the city on May 3, 2021 (26 dead and 80 injured). She defended her teams and negotiated with the builders of the line – a company of billionaire Carlos Slim – compensation for the victims, avoiding trials, according to Agence France-Presse.
Claudia Sheinbaum will certainly have to face many new challenges during her mandate which lasts six years until 2030.