Tensions between the two most prominent senators of the dominant Morena party erupted into the open when one angrily accused the other of engineering his removal as head of the Senate.
The squabble has exposed deep divisions inside Morena, a broad coalition initially forged around left-wing dissidents who backed Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s third presidential bid last year.
Senate President Marti Batres excoriated colleague Ricardo Monreal for “stabbing him in the back,” claiming the head of Morena’s Senate parliamentary group leaned on lawmakers to ensure Batres lost his re-election bid to another Morena senator.
“He has pursued me and fought me for months, treating me like an enemy,” Batres told a news conference, in Spanish, after the vote. “He’s shown himself to be a factious politician, incapable of heading a pluralist movement, incapable of co-existing in diversity, incapable of sharing political responsibilities.”
Monreal described the Senate row as “normal disagreements in democratic processes.”
But he came under fire from some quarters in Morena, including party leader Yeidckol Polevnsky, who backed Batres and urged Monreal to display “more political ethics.”
Monreal and Batres are both regarded as possible contenders within the party for the presidency in 2024. Others include Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, who succeeded Lopez Obrador as mayor of Mexico City, and the current Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum.
Morena extended its base to include disgruntled conservatives and centrists by the time Lopez Obrador won the July 2018 election. It is now the dominant force in both houses of Congress.
Morena’s appeal was that it represented a fresh start after years of discontent with the established parties, said Senator Gustavo Madero of the center-right PAN.
But it is cast in the image of its maker. “It’s strength and its weakness is Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador,” said Madero.
Smashing the opposition with a landslide victory last year, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador became the first leftist to rule the country in decades. He promised to root out corruption and inequality in what he terms the “fourth transformation” of Mexico.
The president has remained above the fray.
“Those of us who are dedicated to the noble office of politics, we have to put ideals and principles first,” he told a news conference when asked about the Senate row. “It’s not the posts that should matter; it’s the contribution to change.”
The Mexican Left has long been notoriously fractious. As the pre-eminent leftist leader in the country for years, Lopez Obrador has been one of its few unifying elements.
With information from Reuters