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The right-wing National Action Party (PAN) is a serious contender for the presidential seat of Mexico after if demonstrated a return to form in last Sunday elections, according to the U.S. daily The Wall Street Journal.
The newspaper expressed that the PAN, which held the Mexican presidency for two straight six-year terms before the current mandate of Enrique Peña Nieto, from the Revolutionary Institutional Party, had "never won more than three governorships on a single election day and never governed 11 states, as it will now."
"The big winner was the center-right National Action Party, or PAN, beating expectations and positioning itself as a serious contender to return to the presidency in 2018. The PAN ended the PRI's seven-decade grip on Mexico's presidency in 2000 and held it until Mr. Peña Nieto's election four years ago," expressed the WSJ.
Ricardo Anaya, the head of the PAN, has strengthened his chances to "run for the PAN's presidential nomination in 2018. The 39-year-old politician and former federal lawmaker, who became the PAN president in 2015, is an emerging figure inside the party. Margarita Zavala, a former first lady whose husband is former President Felipe Calderón, has already said she wants to compete for the PAN's nomination."
The WSJ also pointed out that the change in the Mexican political panorama was propelled by "corruption-weary voters ... signaling widespread dissatisfaction with the administration of President Enrique Peña Nieto and that his party "was ousted from power in four strongholds it had governed uninterrupted since 1929—oil-rich Veracruz, the violence-racked states of Tamaulipas and Durango, and Quintana Roo in the Yucatán Peninsula."
“This election could signal a change in the political cycle. The PRI is going down, the opposition and particularly the PAN is going up ahead of 2018, but the fortunes of the PAN will depend on how well it manages the governorships it won,” said Francisco Abundis, the head of pollster Parametria, to the WSJ.
According to the newspaper, analysts also said the heavy losses of the PRI could translate into more aggressive antigraft legislation, which "was in the works for months, but the PRI and its allies trimmed initial proposals from the opposition. The PRI, for instance, balked at a measure that would force any public servant to publicly disclose their assets."
“Given the poor results, the PRI has no other chance than to push for an aggressive anticorruption agenda,” said Roger Bartra, a prominent Mexican historian, in comments to the WSJ “But it remains to be seen if the party's more conservative wing or the more technocrat wing will prevail.”
