2024-04-27 15:35:13
The women’s duel will have its second televised round. Three weeks after the first presidential debate, last Sunday April 7, the two candidates in the race for the Mexican presidential election, Claudia Sheinbaum and Xochitl Galvez, met again in front of the cameras, next Sunday April 28 .
And “second debate which will hardly change the electoral trend”, already indicates the first, who remains the favorite for the vote on June 2. Credited with nearly 60% of voting intentions, the former mayor of Mexico City, candidate of the National Regeneration Movement (Morena, left), claims to be the heir of the outgoing president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Her rival, conservative senator Xochitl Galvez, remains far behind, with only 34%. A figure significantly higher than that of the third candidate in the race, Jorge Alvarez Maynez, who received 5% of voting intentions.
This second debate will be quite broad. It will concern the economy, the reduction of inequalities and sustainable development. Unlike the first debate, everyone will have an allotted time to present their proposals. The opportunity to make up for it after a disappointing first exercise, when for the first time since 2006, at least one woman took part in the presidential debate.
A missed first date
“Both candidates Sheinbaum and Galvez have shown their total lack of proposals to eradicate violence against women in Mexico, even though this issue is crucial. They missed the opportunity to address Mexican women whose human rights are being violated,” underlined the collective of feminist journalists Cimac, the day after the first debate. A vitriolic observation when last year, 853 feminicides were recorded by the authorities. A largely underestimated figure which is closer to 4,000, according to the associations.
Beyond feminicides, the question of insecurity in its entirety regularly comes back to the table. Right-wing candidate Xochitl Galvez also showed up with a Mexican flag upside down during the last debate, to protest against the wave of violence that has affected the country for several days: “It is a sign of protest against the kidnappings or violence that the country is experiencing. We will save Mexico from criminals and corrupt people,” she declared.
The settling of scores does not spare the political world, in this campaign which combines municipal and legislative elections at the same time as the presidential election. On April 2, two days before the debate, a Morenist candidate for mayor of Celaya, Gisela Gaytan, was assassinated in this city affected by drug trafficking.
The environment and inequalities as campaign themes
As a second debate approaches, each candidate puts forward his proposal to convince the 97 million Mexicans to go to the polls in a month. To reduce inequalities, the favorite, Claudia Sheinbaum, recently presented a list of twelve points to remove, according to her, 7.5 million Mexicans from extreme poverty by 2030. She promises, for example, pensions intended for one million women aged 60 to 64, or a scholarship which should benefit 24 million students. In 2022, according to the World Bank, 31% of the Mexican population lived below the poverty line.
The issue of the environment will also be addressed, and in particular that of the energy transition, while Mexico remains dependent on fossil fuels. And here too, Claudia Sheinbaum, a former scientist member of the IPCC, presents a considerable advantage. But it has no plans to stop using it, unlike its two competitors. Its rival Xochitl Galvez, for example, plans to close at least two refineries and accelerate the energy transition by reducing the share of hydrocarbons. An increasingly significant debate in Mexican society, while the oil industry, which represented 6.1% of GDP in 2011, is in free fall and represents barely more than 3% today.
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