How Morena Turned Anti-Corruption Politics Into Class Politics
Anti-corruption politics was key to the landslide victory of AMLO’s Morena party in Mexico. Morena branded neoliberalism a form of upward redistribution, rallying the working class under the banner of republican austerity against the excesses of the rich.
President-elect of Mexico Claudia Sheinbaum celebrates alongside current president of Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador during a meeting at the National Palace on June 10, 2024 in Mexico City, Mexico. (Ulises Martínez / ObturadorMX / Getty Images)
The presidential elections that took place in Mexico on June 2 gave the reigning party Morena and its candidate Claudia Sheinbaum a decisive victory. The party that Andrés Manuel López Obrador, or AMLO, founded in 2014 won 60 percent of the vote in a three-way race, and a two-thirds majority in the legislature. Sheinbaum is poised to take office with an indisputable mandate. She campaigned on a promise to continue policies that AMLO implemented during his tenure as president, which witnessed measurable advances for the working classes.
Official figures show that real wages have surged by approximately 30 percent, labor’s share of income has increased by 8 percent, and the earnings of the bottom 10 percent of earners grew by 98.8 percent. Additionally, the Gini coefficient, a measure of inequality, has seen a decline, and overall poverty has dropped by 5 percent, over five million people — the largest reduction in twenty-two years. Unemployment rates are now the lowest in the region, coupled with a slight decrease in informal labor.
Left-Wing Anti-Corruption Politics
Perhaps unsurprisingly, AMLO has retained extraordinarily high approval numbers, averaging in the mid-sixties (although a recent Gallup poll places his support at 80 percent). Certainly, leftists and progressives of different stripes have taken issue with the nature and extent of the reforms he has implemented while in government. During his tenure, critics claim, AMLO did not make a full break with neoliberalism, did not heed the demands of feminists or environmentalists, and strengthened the so-called militarization of public affairs — many big infrastructure projects in Mexico continue to be built and managed by the military. These criticisms are not without a basis in reality.
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