NewsLatin AmericaAlejandra del Moral, the PRI's bet to face Morena in the battle for the State of Mexico

Alejandra del Moral, the PRI’s bet to face Morena in the battle for the State of Mexico

Alejandra del Moral, former Secretary of Social Development of the State of Mexico, and Alfredo del Mazo, current governor.ALEJANDRADMV (RR. SS.)

In 2023, the State of Mexico will be the prelude where Morena, the party of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, will measure its strength before the mother of all battles: the presidential succession of 2024. The state elections will also serve to check if the alliance opposition, formed by the PRI, PAN and PRD, has a future and is capable of overcoming a crisis that even threatens to end it. At the moment, the PRI governor, Alejandro del Mazo, has already made a move by imposing his candidate, Alejandra del Moral, who was working as Secretary of Social Development of the State. Del Mazo also seeks to rescue the alliance by directly negotiating a unitary candidacy with the leaders of the PAN and PRD, who for the moment refuse to sit down with the president of the tricolor party, whom they consider little less than a traitor. The opponent to beat will be Delfina Gomez, the former Secretary of Education, who already brushed victory for Morena in the last state elections.

The State of Mexico, or Edomex, has been governed by the PRI since 1929 without interruption, and a political elite was born within it, the Atlacomulco Group, made up of a family that has controlled power in the party and in public institutions for decades. Nothing more and nothing less, the former president of Mexico Enrique Pena Nieto is a direct descendant of that dynasty. Del Mazo himself is a cousin of the former president and a direct descendant of two other former governors. For the PRI, retaining its bastion is as important as it is for Morena to take it away. The Edomex, in addition, is not only a symbolic bastion. Being the most populous in the country, it is the most important federal entity in terms of votes -13% of the total number of voters- for a federal election, such as that of 2024, in which not only the presidency of the Republic will be decided , but also the composition of the two chambers of the federal Congress.

In this context, for the PRI, 2023 could be the battle of the century. Its century of existence, in which it has seen its power diminish in the States and even its militant base (it lost 8 million members in two decades, according to INE data). The one chosen to give that fight, Alejandra del Moral, 39, in addition to Secretary of Social Development of the State, has been a federal deputy, mayor of the Mexican municipality of Cuautitlan Izcalli and leader of the PRI in the entity. In 2018 she was a candidate for the Senate of the Republic, but lost to who was then Morena’s candidate, Delfina Gomez herself, a school teacher originally from Texcoco who, in the end, requested a license from the Upper House and became a secretary. of federal Education. Both contenders will meet again in 2023, in an election that already anticipates that, whatever the result, Edomex will have a woman in charge of the state Executive for the first time.

Alejandra del Moral taking protest as Coordinator for the Defense of the State of Mexico from the PRI.
Alejandra del Moral taking protest as Coordinator for the Defense of the State of Mexico from the PRI. Crisanta Espinosa Aguilar

Although the electoral period has not officially started, the president’s party advanced Gomez’s candidacy for governor from August 4. the PRI uncovered to Del Moral just on Thursday night. “I want to express my absolute gratitude to Governor Alfredo del Mazo for his confidence, his encouragement and his support at this stage as a public servant,” said the flag bearer. The mention of Del Mazo was not just a courtesy gesture. The decision that the PRI candidacy fell on Del Moral was made by the governor, who is the head of the party and, even more, a representative of the Atlacomulco dynasty in power.

Del Moral represents the best option not only for the PRI, but also for the PAN and the PRD, whose leaders have kept alive the possibility of the Va por Mexico alliance for the 2023 state election, much to the chagrin of the PRI national leader, Alejandro Dark, wing, whose coincidence with the interests of the Lopez Obrador Administration recently plunged the coalition into a deep crisis. The leaders of the PAN and the PRD, headed by Marko Cortes and Jesus Zambrano, respectively, have moved the negotiating table of the alliance to Toluca, the capital of Edomex, which is attended by Governor Del Mazo, but not wingaccording to a source who has participated in the discussions and who requested anonymity.

In these meetings, surveys have been presented that show that Morena has 40% of the intention to vote among Mexiquenses, compared to 19% of the PRI, 11% of the PAN and 9% of the PRD, which shows that, separately, neither match would beat Delfina Gomez. However, the same source points out, in a scenario in which they kept the alliance, with Del Moral as the unity candidate, Va por Mexico would reach 28% of the vote intention compared to 33% for Gomez.

If the alliance is not achieved, it has already been announced that the PAN will nominate Enrique Vargas and the PRD will nominate Omar Ortega, both deputies of the Mexican Congress, with the anticipated results of their own polls. By November at the latest, the three parties must decide whether to form a coalition and register it with the local electoral body. In his speech on Thursday, Del Moral defended the alliance and the fruits that it has already yielded for the three parties in the 2021 state election, when Morena lost strength in the state Congress and several City Councils.

“I am a proud Alliance supporter and all of this is the heart and soul of this defense. I will build respecting the representation and convictions of all the parties that add their political strength to this common cause”, he declared. There he also asked to “defend what has been done and what has been done well” and promised that Edomex “will continue to advance firmly and courageously towards a better destiny for all Mexican families.” Campaign aside, the truth is that, in a century of uninterrupted government, the PRI has not been able to abate poverty, much less inequality. According to Coneval data, in 2020 there were 8.3 million people in poverty in the State of Mexico, practically half of its population. Additionally, 1.4 million people lived in extreme poverty. Between 2018 and 2020, access to health services and access to basic services in the home fell. This is what the century of the PRI has been.

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