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.

Explore more

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

From the June 8th 2024 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

Discover more

A man waves the Lebanese flag from a car as displaced people return home, in Sidon, Lebanon on November 27th 2024

Peace in Lebanon is just a start

Donald Trump must build on Joe Biden’s belated success

A group of protesters burn pictures Donald Trump and Joe Biden in 2020

From Nixon to China, to Trump to Tehran

Iran is weak. For America’s next president that creates an opportunity


This illustration shows a graduation cap (mortarboard) with a small pile of coins inside its circular top. The background is green, and the cap's tassel is yellow.

Too many master’s courses are expensive and flaky

Governments should help postgraduates get a better deal


Elon Musk is Donald Trump’s disrupter-in-chief

The entrepreneur will be let loose on America’s government

Why British MPs should vote for assisted dying

A long-awaited liberal reform is in jeopardy