Reforma, Mexico City (December 15, 2022).-
By Martha Martinez
Yesterday [Wednesday, Dec. 14], in the context of the voting on the electoral reform...Sen. Ricardo, head of the Morena caucus, voted against the proposal of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his own party, believing that it violates the Constitution.
Opposition deputies celebrated Sen. Monreal's vote. PRI [Party of the Institutional Revolution] leader Alejandro Moreno said that Monreal's position was an act of integrity shared by millions of Mexicans.
"It was something that he had announced. He is a person who is consistent in what he has said, what issues he has pointed out. He is a teacher, he has taught students [as a professor of law], and we all know that. It is not just Ricardo Monreal's position. It is also the position of millions of Mexicans to have unrestricted respect for the Constitution."
Rubén Moreira, the coordinator of the PRI in the Chamber of Deputies, was confident that the Morena coordinator in the Senate knows what he is doing.
"Everyone knows how he votes, everyone. I'm not going to congratulate him, either, because he knows what he is doing," he said.
The coordinator of Citizens Movement, Jorge Álvarez Máynez, recognized Monreal for being the first government-aligned caucus coordinator in the history of Mexico to go against a presidential initiative.
"We must recognize the civic value of Ricardo Monreal's action. Never in the history of Mexico has a coordinator of a party group allied with the president fought presidential legislative initiatives, calling them unconstitutional and publically saying why they aren't constitutional," he said from the Senate podium.
In contrast, the vice coordinator of the PT [Workers Party, ally of Morena], Gerardo Fernández Noroña, was confident that Monreal has made a wrong decision from the political, legal, and historical points of view.
Although in his daily morning press conference this Thursday morning, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador rejected any purge of Monreal from Morena, Fernández Noroña did not rule out the possibility of the senator joining the ranks of the Opposition.
"About the hypocritical vote of the Senate coordinator, well, I think that yesterday he immolated himself politically speaking. He made a wrong legal, political and historical decision. And, well, the Opposition knows whether it will receive him in its arms, given its absence of [presidential] candidates...," said Noroña.
MV Note: There is much speculation that all of this has to do with jockeying for presidential nominations in 2024. Vamos a ver, we shall see.