(Mexico City) The mayor of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum, announced on Monday that she would leave office to devote herself to the internal campaign that begins within the ruling party, with the ambition of becoming in 2024 the first female president of Mexico.
Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard also officially left office on Monday to campaign for the ruling Morena party, which is increasingly hegemonic in Mexico.
“I made the decision to resign definitively on June 16 (Friday), with the objective of becoming the first woman in the history of Mexico to lead the destinies of the nation,” said Ms.me Sheinbaum, 60, at a press conference in the presence of his team.
This physicist, descendant of Jewish migrants from Bulgaria and Lithuania, is the favorite in the polls in the race for the nomination of the nationalist left party.
The latter is the favorite to stay in power after the presidential election of June 2024, driven by the great popularity of outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and the weakness of the opposition.
Mme Sheinbaum is also committed to continuing “the great work of transformation initiated by the president” elected in 2018.
The mayor of Mexico City insisted on “her struggle for the rights of the Mexican people, democracy, freedoms, social and environmental justice, women’s rights since I was 15 years old”.
Claudia Sheinbaum will mainly face Marcelo Ebrard, the figure of Mexico abroad for more than four years.
“I will dedicate myself from today to another very important task: to defend the Fourth Transformation (name given by President Lopez Obrador to his policy of social change, editor’s note)”, declared Mr. Ebrard while taking leave of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Claudia Sheinbaum, Marcelo Ebrard and two seemingly minor candidates agreed on Sunday on the rules of the game to appoint Morena’s candidate by September 6.
After having traveled the country from June 19 to August 27, the candidates for the nomination will be decided by an opinion poll between August 28 and September 3.
Organized by the party and relayed by four private institutes, the survey will not ask respondents who their favorite candidate is, but rather their perception of each of them (honesty, proximity, knowledge of the country …).
The losers will have to “support the winner”, adds the agreement, as if to avoid any dissenting candidacy or rallying to the opposition of one of the three losers.