Upcoming Election in Mexico Mirrors U.S., Europe's Nationalist Movements Joy Diaz and Laura Rice - Texas Standard
go to original February 9, 2017

PAN's Margarita Zavala Gómez del Campo and Morena's Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Expansión)

Mexico’s election season is right around the corner and two candidates are already leading in the polls. It looks likely that leftist candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico’s MORENA party and conservative candidate Margarita Zavala Gómez del Campo of PAN will face off in July 2018.



Kenneth Greene, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin's Department of Government, says the politics surrounding this election mirror the nationalist movement that’s going on in Europe and the U.S.

“In Mexico, people are flocking to a nationalistic perspective and thinking about how to reinforce Mexico first,“ Greene says.

In particular, Greene says Zavala Gómez del Campo is taking an outsider stance on many of issues.

“An outsider stance these days means questioning NAFTA and thinking about reorienting Mexico’s economy for domestic consumption and possibly enhancing ties to other Latin American countries,” Greene says.

Despite these outsider approaches, Greene says contrary to the result of the U.S. election, it’s likely that leftist López Obrador will come out on top.

...Greene says that support of Mexico’s leftist candidate may have larger-scale implications about the spread of nationalism and its counter-movement.

Read the rest at Texas Standard

Related: AMLO's Strategy? Tone Things Down and Let President Peña Nieto Deal With Trump (Americas Quarterly)

Related: Mexican Leftist Leader AMLO Heads to US on Sunday to Challenge Trump (Agence France-Presse)

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