Mexico will have a female president for the first time

Everything seems to indicate that Mexico will elect a woman as the next Head of State. The country’s presidential elections, scheduled for June 2, 2024, will pit Claudia Sheinbaum, of Morena, the ruling party, against Xóchitl Gálvez, of the Frente Ampla coalition, which brings together the main opposition parties.

For this reason, it is possible to predict that one of the two will replace Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who is prevented by the Mexican Constitution from running again after six years in power.

This Wednesday, the National Regeneration Movement, known as Morena, announced that Claudia Sheinbaum will be the candidate who will try to keep the party in power. Already last Sunday, Xóchitl Gálvez had been announced as a candidate for the Frente Ampla coalition, which brings together the opposition parties – National Action Party (PAN), Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD).

Sheinbaum benefits from the popularity of Obrador, who ends his term with an approval rating of almost 70%, Público advances and victory seemed almost certain. But Gálvez won the support of the population with his story of overcoming obstacles. The opposition candidate came from a humble family, the daughter of an indigenous father, and she managed to achieve professional success after winning a scholarship, CNN notes. In 2018, Gálvez became a senator for the PAN, one of the member parties of the Frente Ampla coalition.

Sheinbaum, who has a doctorate in energy engineering, was Environment Councilor for the Mexico City government in 2000, precisely at the time when Obrador headed the state executive of the Mexican capital. In 2018, Sheinbaum even reached the same position that Obrador held.

Subsequently, the candidate contested the internal elections of Morena with Marcelo Ebrard, former Minister of Foreign Affairs. Ebrard accuses the party of favoritism and, according to El País, guarantees that “he will not submit” to Sheinbaum and adds that he no longer has room.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador has already come to show his support for Sheinbaum, guaranteeing that she is an “honest and principled woman,” according to the same source.

The candidacy process for the Presidency of the Republic is not over yet but the most likely scenario is that one of the two will be elected.

To be Gálvez, Carlos Ramírez, a political analyst contacted by The Guardian, the senator has to present herself as a figure of civil society, outside the system, “without losing the support of the party structure.” For Sheinbaum to be one, she has to be able to “construct his own narrative,” while taking advantage of Obrador’s popularity, the same analyst states.