Mexico’s President, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, suffered his first setback on Sunday when lawmakers rejected his flagship bill to reform the Constitution strengthening the role of the public sector in electricity generation, a measure decried by critics. United States.
Despite attempts at poaching, the presidential party Morena (Movement for National Regeneration) and its allies did not reach a qualified two-thirds majority in the Chamber of Deputies, where the three major opposition parties united and voted versus.
This vote also marks a rebalancing of powers in favor of Congress in the face of a president who is still very popular at more than half of his six-year term which began at the end of 2018, according to certain analyses.
The qualified majority threshold was 334 deputies for 498 present (out of 500 in total). After more than twelve hours of debate, 275 deputies voted for and 223 against this draft reform of three articles of the Constitution (25, 27 and 28) on “ownership of land and water” and the prohibition of monopolies.
The deputies of the opposition bloc “Vapor Mexico” sang the national anthem after the election, after being called “traitors” by the ruling party during the debate.
Because the nationalist leftist president has raised the issue of reforming the electricity market to the rank of issues of national sovereignty in the face of foreign, American and Spanish companies.
Its draft constitutional amendment planned to reverse the liberalization of the electricity market approved in 2013. This involved guaranteeing 54% of the market to the public company Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) against the private sector and the foreign companies, against 38% currently.
The United States denounces a risk for the billions of private investments of American companies in Mexico.
Lackeys of imperialism
US Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar said approval of the reform could cause “endless litigation” under the Mexico-US-Canada free trade agreement.
Spain also fears the consequences for its private companies, such as Iberdrola.
“We will defend our sovereignty!” “, had launched the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Sergio Gutierrez Luna, a few hours before announcing the defeat of his camp himself.
He accused the opposition of wanting to remain “lackeys of imperialism” in the service of foreign companies.
“They will not pass,” repeated the opposition bloc, which brings together the former state party of the PRI (in power for 70 years until 2000), the right-wing PAN, and the left-wing PRD.
The president had tried to divide the PRI (Party of the institutional revolution), by appointing for example in September one of its executives, former governor, ambassador in Madrid. A waste of time: he was expelled from the ranks of the PRI.
The opposition bloc denounced the cost of the reform in terms of public debt or the environment. PAN (National Action Party) executive Jorge Romero said this would set Mexico “50 years backwards in terms of the environment”.
The President of the Republic had minimized his announced defeat in advance. “Whatever happens, we are armored against betrayal. I will explain it again tomorrow, ”he tweeted Sunday evening before the vote.
The president appears to be referring to a Supreme Court ruling ten days ago. The Court ruled that the law giving priority to the public company CFE over private companies was constitutional. This law was approved by Congress in early 2021, by a simple majority. This law of the electrical industry (LIE) was immediately the subject of numerous appeals.
The president also announced last week that in the event of failure and “betrayal of the deputies” on his constitutional reform, he would transmit a “mining law” on Monday “so that lithium remains the property of the Nation”.
This law against new lithium mining concessions (a strategic mineral used in the manufacture of batteries) only requires a simple majority.
Before his foreseeable failure in the Chamber of Deputies, AMLO – the president’s initials and his nickname – had validated his stay in power until the end of his term in 2024 during a referendum last Sunday. In total more than 90% of voters voted for the continuation of his mandate – but with less than 20% participation.