Voices of Mexico no. 93

Our Voice

One month before Mexicans go to the polls, the three presidential candidates for the country's dominant parties (pri, pan, and prd) have intensified their win strategies, particularly focusing on mutual mudslinging. The first televised debate in early May clearly showed this up. Enrique Peña Nieto (Institutional Revolutionary Party, pri), who at that time held a considerable lead over his opponents, was the target for attacks from right-wing candidate Josefina Vázquez Mota (National Action Party, pan) and left leader Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Party of the Democratic Revolution, prd). At that time some of us asked ourselves who would come out the loser of that exercise, since the citizenry continue to have expectations without being able to contrast the arguments and ideas that should underlie presidential hopefuls' platforms.

However, the second —surprise— event has changed this scenario in less than a month. The protagonists have been a movement of university students, which, although it began paradoxically in a private institution of higher learning, has sparked a massive, enthusiastic, inclusive response through the big social networks. The result has been that the gap between the pri and the prd is closing, to the detriment of the pan, which has currently fallen to third place in voter preferences.