Xóchitl Gálvez is in great shape. Extroverted and voluble, since the start of the electoral campaign she has increased attacks on her rival, the favorite, Claudia Sheinbaum, having nothing to lose. His last low blow? Calling his opponent a “narcocandidate”, thus accusing her of reaching out to organized crime. “He is someone who stands out for his brilliance,” says Jean-François Prud’homme, political scientist at Colegio de México. In the Senate, she could disguise herself to promote her ideas. » She already showed up there dressed in a dinosaur costume to criticize electoral reform, which she described as “ Jurassic map “.
Born in the state of Hidalgo, north of the capital, the woman who gave up her position as senator to run for president does not hesitate to highlight her modest origins, recounting having sold jelly fruit (gelatinas) on the street during his childhood. This did not prevent his impressive social rise. A graduate in computer engineering from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Xóchitl Gálvez, now 61, has become a successful businesswoman in the technology world. A self-made woman who boasted that she was not controlled by anyone, “not even [son] own husband.”
Proudly wearing the huipuil, traditional embroidered clothing, the one who led the Commission of Indigenous Peoples under the government of Vicente Fox (2000-2006), of the National Action Party (PAN), does not hesitate to claim her indigenous Otomi origins, to speak of the foundation for indigenous women and children which she directed before entering politics. Supported by an economic elite, adept at resorting to the private sector, the former mayor of a bourgeois district of Mexico City nevertheless stands out for some of her positions which tend towards the center, or even the left, on the political spectrum. She intends to support social policies and does not adopt conservative discourse on the issues of abortion and LGBTQ +.
Charismatic and tenacious, Xóchitl Gálvez fights hard to take her place, which she maintains she owes to no one. Except perhaps to one of her greatest adversaries, whom she has repeatedly accused of being corrupt: the president himself. “By dint of being the subject of Mr. López Obrador’s harangues during his mañaneras [conférences de presse matinales], she became a bigger character than she was. In a way, the opposition promoted his candidacy and made him its main adversary,” observes Mr. Prud’homme.
The fact remains that she still has a lot of work to do to make up the gap that separates her from her rival and win the hearts of voters. Particularly that of young people, who voted very little for her during a “mock” election organized on certain campuses across the country at the beginning of May. She arrived in 1third place, obtaining 7.7% of voting intentions, a rate flirting with abstention. Very little concerned by these results, Xóchitl Gálvez replied: “It doesn’t matter. We’ll see each other on June 2 and there, I will win. »