A massive closing of the campaign in which the Morenista tribes aligned themselves (for now) with Sheinbaum

MEXICO CITY (apro).- All the smiles in the world seemed concentrated this afternoon on the platform of the capital’s zócalo during the campaign closing ceremony of Morena’s presidential candidate, Claudia Sheinbaum, who before starting her speech looked looser and effusive than usual while greeting the representatives of the different tribes of her party.

There, in the pavilion built with calculated symbolic intention in front of the National Palace – something that was popular in the campaigns of the old PRI, last century – Sheinbaum was in charge, first of all, of giving a message of unity with unrestricted adherence to the manual. of good political customs.

This is how she approached to greet all the “corcholatas” who competed with her in the Morena election last year to elect the presidential candidate of the party founded in 2011 by the current president Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

First he approached Ricardo Monreal, then Marcelo Ebrard and Gerardo Fernández Noroña and, finally, a bearded Adán Augusto Santiago, who was wearing a blue shirt, not the PAN shade of blue, but blue. All of them received a cordial kiss from their political opponent, even Marcelo, with whom the grip was stronger in last year’s internal elections.

She walked down the stage with long rockstar steps and very smiling. Everyone who was there smiled at him anyway. It was a silent communication, of expectant glances and smiles intended to show that everyone was having a great time, that there is no problem, that everything is behind them.

Everyone was happy when Sheinbaum went to meet them. From the Morenista candidate for the governorship of Veracruz, Rocío Nahle, who has been supported without restrictions by the presidential standard-bearer in these difficult days of allegations of corruption and illicit enrichment, to Javier May from Tabasco and Claudia Delgadillo from Jalisco.

Even the president of Morena, Mario Delgado, received a kiss and hug from Sheinbaum. A significant gesture, for the day, time and place, after López Obrador left the leader of his party alone in the “fiscal huachicoleo” scandal that he faces.

But the fact is that there, on the stage erected at the foot of the National Palace, was the Morena staff, and instead of elbows, there were plenty, at least for the general public, of kisses, hugs and snuggles.

Clara Brugada, who closed her campaign for the Head of Government of Mexico City at that event, greeted Omar García Harfuch, whom López Obrador “removed” from the candidacy for the capital government, despite the fact that he won the consultation internal, to make way for the former mayor of Iztapalapa.

Citlalli Hernández, more discreet, greeted those next to her, including the former Undersecretary of the Interior, Alejandro Encinas, who was very involved in Brugada’s campaign as a member of his Advisory Council.

There is, it is evident, a “hard” and ultra-Worker sector of Morena in which Citlalli places Brugada, Martí Batres, Jesús Ramírez, herself and Claudia herself.

“They call us tough because we are workers, because we are loyal to the president, and in that they are right,” said the general secretary of Morena to Proceso.

The way in which the different “tribes” or tendencies within Morena relate will depend, say those in the know, on the electoral result, on the looseness or closeness of the data that arise from the scrutiny, and on the formation of the future Congress. , where the ruling party may or may not have a majority.

–And how are the Morena groups and the López Obrador coalition going to reconcile after this election? –the deputy and former presidential candidate Gerardo Fernández Noroña is asked.

“There is nothing to reconcile,” he answers.

–Of course, deputy, your own colleagues say…

–No, everything is reconciled.

Noroña took photos, many selfies, with the Morenista hosts that walked towards the zócalo along Madero Street. He is popular among them and he allows himself to be loved.

The shadow of the leader

It is evident that the hubbub of a packed zócalo, with a crowd that overflowed to Madero, 5 de Mayo and Tacuba streets, echoed in the National Palace.

“Be careful what you say, AMLO is listening,” a reporter joked with the members of an enthusiastic Morenista group from Iztapalapa that does not stop cheering for Brugada and Claudia Sheinbaum.

Who knows if the president heard Brugada and Sheinbaum’s speeches live. They called him “the best president in the history of Mexico,” although he grants that honor to Benito Juárez. It is worth asking if Sheinbaum and Brugada consider López Obrador a better president than Juárez or Lázaro Cárdenas. Journalistically, it is essential to ask them that question.

In any case, much of Sheinbaum’s closing event, as occurred throughout the campaign, revolved around the figure of López Obrador, his “legacy,” how it will be preserved, how he will never be betrayed. by anyone from his movement.

Sheinbaum said it clearly: “I am committed to preserving the legacy of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.”

Martín Luis Guzmán’s novel “The Shadow of the Caudillo” could serve as the title for one of the most outstanding chapters of Morena’s campaign closing ceremony.

Claudia did not spare her praise for the project. “The 4T has given us back the pride of being Mexican,” she said.

He also said things that he did not usually say in the campaign, such as the need to build a plural, diverse country, in which everyone fits, even those who are not with the leader.

“We know that dissent is part of democracy!” he said, and affirmed that, if he wins, he will look after “each of the Mexicans, without distinction.”

Closeup of ratchet and confetti

The crowd that gathered in the zócalo – 550 thousand people, according to the Government Secretariat of Mexico City – arrived there as part of a very well-planned mobilization operation that left from all regions of the country, in trucks, in minibuses. , in trucks.

It was a political act of noise and confetti, of popular enthusiasm, of pennants and t-shirts, of hats, cherry vests, village orchestras and cardboard presidential bands with Claudia’s photo. There were batucadas, mariachi groups, two or three portable speakers with reggaeton and an orderly separation of the contingents on the square’s plank.

The diversity of the republic was there, the living forces, the unions, the peasants, the SME, the oil workers, the settlers of Chalco, the peasants of Tlapehuala, Guerrero, with their Caletano hats.

Félix Salgado Macedonio, the father of the governor, of Governor Evelyn, was of course on the stage, in the last row, yes, with a Caletano hat. Like nothing.

Almost in front of the stage, just behind the kind of corral in which all politicians in the world usually isolate journalists, was a large group from the CTM with large flags proclaiming their union affiliation and their Morenoist support.

One of the workers of the labor union that Fidel Velázquez led until his death, an unsurpassable prototype of charro unionism, says that they got there “out of conviction.”

–But you weren’t PRI members? –She asks him.

–Well, we were –he laughs–, but not anymore.

–Are they Lopezobradorists now?

–Well, what can I tell you –he laughs again–, it seems so.

Times change, party colors change, alliances and “ties” between tribes change, but the script of the ritual and the development of the uses and customs of Mexican politics almost do not change.

At the end, before the sun set, Claudia Sheinbaum, who spoke for 40 minutes, seemed happy, unusually happy. She had a cherry dress with a colorfully embroidered sash, and her hair was straight, straight, and pulled back into a ponytail. She left with her husband Jesús María Tarriba and the tribal chiefs stayed there, speaking briefly.