four things to know about Claudia Sheinbaum, big favorite in the poll

At 61, the left-wing candidate is well ahead of her center-right rival, Xochitl Galvez, in the polls. If victorious, Claudia Sheinbaum would become the first president in Mexican history.

For the first time in Mexico’s history, a woman is expected to lead Latin America’s second-largest economy. Nearly 100 million voters are called to the polls on Sunday June 2. Claudia Sheinbaum, the big favorite of the poll, who led Mexico City between 2018 and 2023, is expected to succeed President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, alias “AMLO”, in power since 2018. The country’s Constitution limits in effectively limits Mexican leaders to a single six-year presidential term.

“This June 2, we will make history”, proclaimed the candidate of the left in power, during her last rally in the capital. In case of victory, thehe presidential party candidate, who defines herself as a feminist, is committed to continuing the social policies and economic program initiated by the outgoing president. Here are four things to know about Claudia Sheinbaum.

1 A scientist, she has long been interested in the climate issue

Coming from a family of scientists, Claudia Sheinbaum turned to hard sciences at university. It was her older brother, now a research engineer in ocean modeling, who persuaded her to study physics, she tells the magazine Science. Without being a leader, she is a diligent activist, particularly during the student mobilization of 1986. “I was involved by my parents who themselves participated in the student movement of 1968, but my main occupation was being a mother and going to university”she explains to the media BreakThrough News.

After completing a doctorate in energy engineering in December 1994, she entered politics with the current president. Elected mayor of Mexico City in 2000, Andres Manuel Lopez Abrador appointed her Minister of the Environment of the country’s capital. On these themes, “Claudia Sheinbaum has free rein”observes Hélène Combes, research director at CNRS attached to CERI at Sciences Po and author of the book From the streets to the presidency, protest centers in Mexico. “Due to Andres Manuel Lopez Abrador’s lack of interest in ecology, she pursued the policy she wanted”.

After the defeat of her mentor in the presidential election in 2006, Claudia Sheinbaum returned to academic life. “Even though I returned to university, I was with Lopez Obrador. I was with him in this movement which allowed the creation of the National Regeneration Movement [Morena]“, she tells BreakThrough News. In parallel with its activities, it contributes to the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Claudia Sheinbaum notably participated in 2007 in the writing of a chapter in the report devoted to the mitigation of climate change (in PDF)explains the CNN channel.

2 At the top of the polls, she is riding the popularity of an adored president

After six years in power, the outgoing president leaves the National Palace, seat of the Presidency of the Republic, with record popularity. According to a survey carried out by the Mexican newspaper El FinancieroAndres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s rating reached 60% favorable opinions, an exceptional satisfaction rate at the end of his mandate, which is partly explained by a good economic and social record. “Compared to 2018, the economic situation is much better. Even if extreme poverty remains, poverty as a whole is decreasingunderlines researcher Hélène Combes. The increase in the minimum wage has largely benefited poor populations. This policy made it possible to create a very strong link with popular circles.”

Buoyed by this popularity of the outgoing president, Claudia Sheinbaum has constantly been leading the race in the polls. With 53% of voting intentions, she distances her center-right rival, Xóchitl Gálvez, by 17 points, according to the average of surveys carried out by the specialized site Oraculus.

“It’s an honor to be with Obrador!”echoed her supporters during the candidate’s last campaign meeting, on May 30. Three days earlier, she had pledged to continue the social reform program initiated by AMLO.

3 She was mayor of Mexico City, with a record on which she capitalized

Mayor of the Tlalpan district, in the south of the capital between 2015 and 2016, she became the first woman elected at the head of Mexico City in 2018. Claudia Sheinbaum tried to scientifically manage the Covid pandemic, which recorded the strongest death rate per 100,000 population (442.1) nationwide. At the start of the pandemic, she encouraged the metropolis’s nine million residents to wear a mask and respect a certain number of social distancing rules. As recalled Sciencethis strategy of the councilor clashes in particular with the health policy of the outgoing president, accused of minimizing the dangerousness of the virus.

Claudia Sheinbaum made this good management a campaign argument. “It is this mandate and his record that allowed him to be presidential”, underlines Hélène Combes. After leaving office in June 2023, she easily won the race for her party’s nomination for the presidential election. “Even if the election is not decided in Mexico City, the capital and the metropolitan area represent 15% of the electorate”. A long-time environmentalist, she promotes “a change in individual practices, by launching programs in working-class neighborhoods for education in ecology and urban subsistence agriculture”specifies the academic.

4 She presents herself as a feminist, but her commitment is called into question

In a country which records one of the highest rates of feminicides per number of inhabitants in the world, Claudia Sheinbaum promises, as the first president of Mexico, to make the fight against impunity and sexist and sexual violence a priority. heart of its policy in the event of victory. In 2023, “3 800 women were killed, even though only 24% of these murders are investigated as feminicides by public prosecutors, which contributes to impunity for these crimes.explains Delphine Lacombe, sociologist and political scientist, research fellow at the CNRS.

During the campaign, the former mayor affirmed daily El País that she will launch, if elected president, a constitutional reform to “that the real equality of women and the right to a life without violence be recognized”.

Although she publicly defines herself as a feminist, several activists nevertheless question her commitment. “She embodies a feminism that supports opinion and does not challenge patriarchal society, as a much younger and radical feminist movement can do”, explains Hélène Combes. His management of policing in the capital during feminist rallies has, for example, been strongly criticized.

She also refrained from taking a formal position on a Supreme Court decision decriminalizing abortion nationwide in September 2023. “Like her opponent, Xochitl Gálvez, Claudia Sheinbaum evaded this question for strategic reasons while there are 18 states out of 32 which still criminalize abortionanalyzes Delphine Lacombe. She defends a record [en tant que maire à Mexico] that even moderate feminists find it extremely mixed.”