Development: On 10 October 46 prominent writers and politicians backed a call for coalition government.
Significance: Included on the list is Marcelo Ebrard, the outgoing mayor of Mexico City. He stated that a coalition was the only alternative to the return of the traditional Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) to the presidency. What makes the suggestion all the more fascinating is that it was originally driven by Manlio Fabio Beltrones, the PRI leader in the senate, and the only rival to the party’s front-runner Enrique Peña Nieto, the ex-governor of the Estado de México. Beltrones is now publicly distancing himself from the idea.
Key points:
• The signatories are drawn from across the political and literary spectrum. The list is headed by Carlos Fuentes, a prominent novelist. Besides Ebrard, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, a thrice presidential candidate for the Left (who was probably cheated of victory in 1988), and his son, Lázaro (like Cuauhtémoc a former governor of Michoacán) also added their names. On the Right, Santiago Creel, a candidate for the Partido Acción Nacional’s presidential nomination, also signed up. The centre was represented by Juan Ramon de la Fuente, a former rector of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico (UNAM).
• Ebrard said that the return of the PRI to the presidency would be an “utter disaster”.
• Beltrones originally suggested that if the president elected in 2012 did not win a majority of votes, or could not command a majority in congress, then the congress itself should draw up the government’s programme.
