By Miguel Toro On May 20, 2018, the four Mexican presidential candidates held their second of three debates scheduled for this campaign process. This was an unusual week prior to the debate as Margarita Zavala withdrew her independent candidacy to the presidency on Wednesday, May 16. During a televised debate, Zavala announced she was dropping out of the race, understanding that Mexico was facing a very tough decision this election and this way liberating her supporters to choose whichever option they deemed worthy. She indicated that she would start a civic movement the day after the election to try and recuperate the democratic values that have been lost in Mexican politics. It must be noted that it is difficult for any independent candidate to win the presidential election in Mexico, because from the start, they face an uphill battle in leveling the playing field in terms of campaign resources and party structure. These are some of the reasons she left the race. The main question that comes out of this situation is who will benefit from Margarita Zavala’s voters? The following weeks will reveal this situation as well as incorporate people’s opinions after the second debate. As for the debate, it is important to note that this was the first time in history that the National Electoral Institute organized a town-hall format for a debate. It addressed the topics of migration, border security, trade, and the role of Mexico in the world. The four candidates primarily focused on the relationship between Mexico and the United States and how this affects our policies on various issues. However, it was disappointing to hear that it seems that, in the world, there is only one other country and our entire foreign policy resorts to dealing with President Trump. There was very little said about Central America and nothing on Latin America or the rest of the world except for a very brief mention of the renewed free trade agreement with the European Union. In terms of quality, this debate was an important step back compared to the previous debate, as even though the audience’s questions were good and the moderators were incisive, the four candidates resorted more to platitudes and avoided going in depth on their proposals. There is this feeling that Mexican politicians have disdain towards foreign policy, as they traditionally believe the notion that the best foreign policy is domestic policy. Nevertheless, they suggested some interesting policies, which are listed below: Trade
Border Security
Migration
With respect to polls, there was only one new poll before the second debate from pollster Ipsos-Bimsa. The trends remain the same, and López Obrador continues to have a large margin. According to the aggregate summary of the “poll of polls” from Oraculus.mx AMLO has a 44% of voting intentions, compared to 29% for Anaya and 20% for Meade. Figure 1. Poll of Polls (as of May 23, 2018) Source: Oraculus.mx
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Manuel Franco
4/26/2023 02:03:39 am
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