If the opposition wanted, Sunday’s referendum would be a fresh start. One that leads her to sustained relevance, one that makes her the protagonist. If the opposition could, it would be on the verge of starting a cycle to win the support of a good part of those who disdained the revocation in the public debate, in Congress, in the state and presidential elections, and not just from the few who voted. against in that exercise.
Because President López Obrador does know what he will do with his numbers. From Sunday he clothed them with triumph; he will also put the minimum floor label on them. And in the days to come he will review the successes in the mobilization, but also the failures, the insufficiencies and, above all, the disappointments: who failed to comply and who has to be rewarded.
A bravo for Adán Augusto and the southeast, dove for the bull and the Torita in Guerrero, well by Oaxacans, Hidalgo, Sinaloa and Veracruz… On the other hand, Alfonso Durazo, Marina de la Paz Ávila, David Monreal and Claudia Sheinbaum.
The question is what the oppositions will do with the result of the consultation. We speak of three oppositions. The front that was constituted in the last election and that somehow survives in Congress and negotiates candidacies in the state ones (PRI, PAN and PRD); that solitary player that is Movimiento Ciudadano and, in a third place that does not minimize its eventual relevance, organizations, actors from the past (such as Anaya) and anyone who individually or collectively emerges regardless of their past or current affiliation.
If there is something good about Sunday’s exercise, it is that the competition for the electorate has reopened. López Obrador will offer more of the same to those he already has and those he seeks to conquer: more energetic nationalism, more anti-Yankeeism, more revenge against the looters of the past, more come to the right side of history.
What will the oppositions offer? Will they finally be able to find a voice, a proposal, a discourse that manages to capture the attention and intention of those who seek alternatives?
Have they learned that many people do not yearn for the past that was supposed to be better? Will they be able to stop falling into the traps that AMLO always sets for them? Will they know how to articulate simple and sensible proposals that do not cancel an equity project while giving viability to the universal programs installed by López Obrador?
The President’s 16 million votes on Sunday are not a daunting number; It’s also not one to underestimate. Put in perspective, and subject to finer readings of the sociodemographic layers of these supports, it is also a reservation that Andrés Manuel has in regions that are very similar to him.
On the other hand, if any opposition dares, there are votes to be won in Mexico City, Jalisco, Guanajuato, Yucatán, Puebla, Aguascalientes, Nuevo León, Querétaro, etc… places where it was bad for the President to regulate in the consultation. And, by the way, in the first five there will be renewal of the governorship in the presidential year.
Do you have a country project that is not withered nostalgia? One, several? What does it look like, in what phrase or slogan can they be summed up?
Can that project be solidified with the steps that there will be between now and 2024, in each battle in Congress, starting with the energetic one this week? Does it build and encourage against a regime of permanent mobilization?
If the opposition wanted, if they could, the future would have started on Sunday. But it will only be for those who know how to take advantage of it. Be it the ruling party or some opposition.