Ruling party scrambles to hold onto power in Mexico

Bloomberg

A year is a long time in politics. But for the task confronting Mexico’s ruling party — to recover from rock bottom approval ratings and retain the presidency — it may not be long enough. That’s why there’s a sense of urgency about the party’s national assembly taking place in five states this week. After ruling Mexico for most of the past century, the PRI has lost two of the past three presidential elections.
Now, a furious debate is under way about how to pull off a comeback win in the presidential vote in July 2018. Should the party bring in a candidate from outside its ranks, untainted by its perceived failures in curbing violence and graft? Or nominate one of its own — if it can find someone not marked by corruption scandals that have engulfed many of its elected officials?
Finance Minister Jose Antonio Meade, who has kept his nose clean as a succession of politicians were swept up in scandals, is the main potential candidate that fits the first category, while Health Minister Jose Narro is one example of the second type. Ultimately, the decision will rest with the man whose dismal approval rating has hurt his party’s chances to begin with — President Enrique Pena Nieto.
The PRI enters the race “at its worst electoral moment in history,” said Javier Oliva, a political scientist at Mexico’s National Autonomous University. In a sign of its failings, both its options require creating distance from the president and building outside alliances, he said.
The beneficiary of the PRI’s failing support could be two-time presidential candidate for the left, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who says he’ll seek to halt private investment in the oil industry, put the domestic economy before the interests of foreign capital, and stand up to Donald Trump.