◼ POLITICS Bloomberg Businessweek October 14, 2019
41leadership contest in late November. At stake is the
party’s direction, whether it should double down
on the anti-establishment agitation that helped it
ascend to power or become more like a traditional
political group (formal, organized, hierarchical).
The contest has become so contentious that AMLO
threatened to quit Morena.
“It’s a debate between the more confronta-
tional, radical wing of the party and the more
pragmatic, progressive one,” says Verónica Ortiz,
a lawyerandco-hostonMexico’snonpartisan
Congresschannel.“Howthisplaysoutwillbe
extremelyimportantfordeterminingthesuccess
ofthepresidentandhisproject.”
TheexperiencesofAMLO’spreviousparty,the
left-leaningPartidodela RevoluciónDemocrática,or
PRD,andtheconservativePartidoAcciónNacional,
orPAN,serveascautionarytales.Eachis nowmuch
diminishedinnationalandregionalrepresentation
afterbecomingmiredininternaltribalwarfare.
BothoftheleadingcandidatesfortheMorena
chairarepledgingtogetalongwithAMLO:In
interviewstheytrytooutdoeachotherinpledg-
ingsupportforhisagenda.Theirdifferencesare
lessabouthowtorunthecountrythanhowto
runtheparty,implementAMLO’svision,andcon-
tinueMorena’selectoralsuccess.Nomatterwho
wins,asa popularpresident,AMLOislikelyto
exerta greaterinfluenceoverthepartyheadthan
viceversa.
Theincumbent,YeidckolPolevnsky,is a long-
timeleftistwhoinheritedtheparty’stopspotafter
AMLOsteppeddownin 2017 toseekthepresidency.
PolevnskygotherpoliticalstartasthePRD’scan-
didateforgovernorofthestateofMexicoin2005,
runningagainsttheeventualvictor,EnriquePeña
Nieto,whowentontoserveaspresidentfrom 2012
to2018.Hisadministrationwasrockedbycorruption
scandals,economicinsecurity,anddisappointing
growth,whichhelpedfuelMorena’smanyvictories.
Havingledanindustrialchamberofcommerce
beforeenteringpolitics,shehasmorerecently
praisedthelateCubanleaderFidelCastroandspo-
kenfavorablyofVenezuelaunderNicolásMaduro.
InMexicoshe’spromotedgreaterstateinterven-
tionintheeconomythroughprojectsincluding
an$8billion refinery for the national oil company,
Petróleos Mexicanos. Polevnsky says her comments
on other world leaders are irrelevant to the Morena
leadership race and describes the party as a big
tent with diverse ideologies. “If you think that I’m
a radical, there are people who are much more rad-
ical than I am in Morena,” she says. “Ideological
or intellectual differences shouldn’t scare us, they
should enrich us.”
Polevnsky’s main challenger, lower house
Majority Leader Mario Delgado, studied economics
at Mexico’s elite ITAM university alongside others
who would become finance ministers in conserva-
tive governments. “I’m pragmatic and moderate in
the public policies that I support to achieve objec-
tives,” he says, “but I’m radical in the vision for
change,” which includes stamping out corruption
and ending poverty.
A Delgado win could signal that Morena will
choose more moderate candidates for the key 2021
midterm elections. “There’s space for Delgado to
take a more reasonable position, where he tries
to influence López Obrador on some issues and
mightnotneedtoadoptasradicala stanceas”
Polevnsky,saysAlejandroSchtulmann,whoheads
theMexicoCity-based political consulting firm
Empra. “The challenge for the next Morena chair
is to consolidate and try to transform a grassroots
movement into an institution.”
Yet it isn’t even clear how the party head should
be chosen. AMLO said in August that he’d like it to
be by national poll. An internal party Committee for
Honesty and Justice rejected that option. Delgado
then suggested the candidates agree among them-
selves on rules for a group of polls that would deter-
minethewinner,whowouldsimplyberatifiedby
partymembersattheconvention,scheduledfor
Nov.23-24.Polevnskysaysthepartyrolls,at 3 mil-
lion, include more than a million whose party loy-
alty hasn’t been sufficiently proven.
A September poll of 810 Mexican adults by the
newspaper El Financiero showed Delgado and
Polevnsky in a statistical tie with 15% and 12%
support, respectively. Two other candidates—
Alejandro Rojas, a former tourism minister for
Mexico City, and Bertha Luján, the comptrol-
ler when AMLO was mayor of Mexico City—drew
4% and 3%, respectively. Two-thirds of those
polled said they hadn’t yet chosen a favorite.
Polevnsky has accused Delgado of dividing the
party and criticized him for serving in Congress
while also campaigning for Morena leadership,◀ Polevnsky speaking
at a summit in Puerto
Vallarta in 2018“If you think
that I’m a
radical, there
are people who
are much more
radical than I
am in Morena”