Leaders | Single-party politics

Morena’s landslide win threatens to take Mexico down a dangerous path

The country’s newly elected president will need to show political courage

Claudia Sheinbaum celebrates following the results of the general election at Zocalo Square in Mexico City, Mexico on June 3rd 2024
Photograph: Getty Images

Mexicans know the dangers of one-party rule. In 2000 the country emerged from seven decades under the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which were defined by corruption, inequality and political repression. Yet in elections on June 2nd they voted to hand the ruling party, Morena, a degree of power not seen since the PRI’s fall. Morena and its coalition allies are less disciplined and monolithic than the PRI was, but they still pose a grave threat to Mexico. Much now turns on the political courage of the country’s next president, Claudia Sheinbaum, the first woman to hold the post.

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This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “Back to the future”

From the June 8th 2024 edition

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