“AMLO is Morena's main asset”: Ricardo Monreal and the “lessons” left him by the Mandate Revocation

On Sunday, April 10, the consultation process was held in relation to the Revocation of Mandate, a democratic process that aims to know whether or not citizens want the current president of the republic to be removed from his functions for which he was elected. After this exercise, Ricardo Monreal, Morena's leader in the Senate of the Republic, published a series of estimates.

Less than 24 hours after the end of the consultation, the president of the Political Coordination Board (Jucopo) in the House of Senators already has a slightly broader view of what happened on Sunday in relation to citizen participation, the presence of AMLO in the National Regeneration Movement (Morena) and the power of the parliamentary opposition.

At about 1:00 p.m. (central Mexico time), the doctor of constitutional law from UNAM used his social networks to publish the four “lessons” that this exercise of citizen participation left him.

At the beginning of his list, the senator said that “President AMLO is Morena's main asset”, which can be seen in the popularity and acceptance ratings, since, according to data provided by the National Electoral Institute (INE), more than 16.5 million Mexicans participated in the Mandate Revocation, 15.1 million ratified the head of the federal executive.

Likewise, the second point he pondered was that “participation was considerable” and “the result translates into strength”. To find out whether this consultative exercise was well received, it must be compared with the only similar process that has been carried out in Mexico, which is the 2021 Popular Consultation, which proposed to investigate and prosecute former presidents. That day was attended by 6.6 million Mexicans, which means that almost 10 million more people participated in the Revocation.

Along with the good results that the figure of the president attracted to Morena, Monreal Ávila wrote that “the movement is ready for elections,” said commentary gains political relevance this year because the states of Aguascalientes, Durango, Tamaulipas, Quintana Roo, Hidalgo and Chiapas will define new governorships in June. Likewise, in 2023 the parties will have to profile their candidates who will compete for the presidency of 2024.

Finally, the Morenista took into account the parties of the so-called opposition: the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the National Action Party (PAN), the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) and the Citizen Movement (MC), this because he said: “do not dismiss that the opposition exists, but it was demobilized”.

As for the value of opposition to the Revocation of Mandate, it must be observed from two angles. The first would be the symbolic value that figures such as Ricardo Anaya or Vicente Fox placed on the exercise and, the second, would be the real political weight that was manifested at the polls, this because while the opposition pointed to the consultation as a failure for President López Obrador, ballots indicate that this exercise was more popular than the candidates of the PRI and the PAN in elections.

For example, Ricardo Anaya, a former candidate for president for the PAN in 2018, said that “Although López Obrador does not want to accept it, yesterday's Mandate Revocation consultation was a complete failure [...] It was money thrown away. It was a farce and a fraud.”

However, it must be contrasted that he, in the elections he participated, was able to accumulate only 12.6 million votes. Similarly, José Antonio Meade, the PRI candidate, just collected 9.2 million votes. Same numbers that pale when compared to the 15.1 million votes that ratified AMLO this Sunday.

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