(Bloomberg) — Mexico’s presidential candidates traded attacks and attempted to discredit each other in the first debate of the 2024 race, while going light on details of proposals to address corruption, education and health.
The debate, the first of three ahead of June 2 elections, pit ruling party candidate Claudia Sheinbaum against main competitor Xochitl Galvez and third-party candidate Jorge Alvarez Maynez, all of whom spent much of the time pulling out placards to illustrate one another’s alleged corruption or mismanagement scandals.
In between name-calling each other, the candidates broadly agreed on the need to invest more in kids’ education, aid for women, digitization of bureaucracy and healthcare needs. The debate was a chance for the opposition candidates to try to shake the lead of the former Mexico City mayor.
The candidates are vying to succeed popular President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who is barred by local rules from running for a second term. In the Bloomberg Polling Tracker, Sheinbaum had 58% of effective voter intention, a 23-point lead over Galvez, before the debate on Sunday.
“I don’t think there was a winner of this debate,” said political analyst Gisela Rubach, head of Consultores y Marketing Politico, in a TV show following the face-off. “Each candidate spoke to her public. The male candidate fought to get into the ring.”
Read More: Mexico’s Sheinbaum Leads Polls by 23 Points Ahead of Debate
A drier speaker than the country’s Lopez Obrador, Sheinbaum nevertheless managed to hold steady. She reiterated proposals of improvements to pensions and salaries, classic parts of Lopez Obrador’s platform. Galvez questioned her character, accusing her of being “heartless,” and a poor follow-up to the president.
“All in all, we believe the debate was not a game-changer,” wrote Bradesco BBI analysts Rodolfo Ramos and Juan Ponce in a note. “We saw Galvez throwing the most punches during the debate, but we are not sure she landed any of them in a decisive way.”
Absent from the debate was a diplomatic crisis that erupted over the weekend after Ecuador stormed Mexico’s embassy in the country, leading Latin America’s second-largest economy to cut ties with the nation. Sheinbaum acknowledged it briefly at the start of her first address, praising the “courage” of the Mexican diplomatic corps in Ecuador.
Read More: Mexico Seeks UN Ruling in Protest of Ecuador’s Raid of Embassy
Mexico will host two more debates on April 28 and May 19.
(Updates with analyst comment in seventh paragraph.)
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Published: 08 Apr 2024, 11:34 PM IST