Antonio Soto Sánchez, a long time PRD militant and federal Deputy (Congressman) openly voiced his dissatisfaction with his political party's latest antics and threats.
Like the Stalinist party of the extinct Soviet Union, the PRD has ordered us Deputies and Senators to block the inauguration of Felipe Calderón.Soto Sánchez said that the PRD coordinator in the Chamber of Deputies was excluding his own party from "intelligent political negotiations" due to incompetence. The PRI, which has been actively negotiating with the PAN (which holds the most seats in both houses of the Mexican Congress) while the PRD had been boycotting some of those negotiating sessions for key positions within the Congress, will "have more positions than we will hold while we have more seats in the Congress."
And you can't refuse because there will be reprisals, they'll accuse you of being a traitor and they'll lynch you. Well, there's a true political lynching going on right now inside the PRD that is truly unacceptable.
The unhappy PRD congressman says that this is a disservice to the voters who came out for the PRD. "We are in danger of allowing ourselves to be swept from the political scene just as occurred between 1988 and 1991," he said. As an example, he cited the "suggestion" from PRD headquarters that the two PRD representatives on the Tax Commission refuse to join a meeting with Felipe Calderón, "because the PRD will not negotiate with a spurious president". "This is a grave error," he said.
"Many people who voted for us are going to feel cheated because our attitude has not been to try to rise above the current circumstances. We'll come out of 2009 (the next mid term election cycle) not with 127 seats in Congress, but maybe only 50." He admitted that the PRD objects to the presidential election results, but "the reality is that Felipe Calderón will be sworn in as president so what do we have to gain by denying the inevitable? I believe we need to think very carefully about this."
He then issued a warning to Calderón, saying that the next government needs to be the first to offer to engage in, propose and formalize some type of minimum political agreements." Because if it doesn't, "then there's going to be a big show on December 1 (Inauguration Day), I don't know exactly what's going to happen, but it won't be a walk in the park for Felipe Calderón and could be very painful for the country's institutions."
I doubt that Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) really cares too much about the country's institutions. He had convinced himself that he could not lose the election, up to the point of refusing to attend the first nationally televised presidential debate and engaging in sophomoric name-calling against President Fox, after which his 10 point lead in the polls evaporated. He never accepted that loss of support even though almost all independent polls agreed, with some showing a 12 point swing, from his 10 point advantage to a 2 point Calderón advantage.
When election day faded away, all he had left was accusations of massive voter fraud with no evidence of same, accusations of betrayal by his own poll workers with no evidence of same, and accusations against the press, the United States and foreign government involvement etc., etc.. Now he is ordering his minions to disrupt and try to block the swearing-in ceremonies which will be attended by many Latin American heads-of-state as well a some prince from Spain.
Long time PRD activists and Congressmen are beginning to object. This could get real interesting.
Calderón's people set up a mock congressional chamber under a tent to plan the layout to try to give the new president some security during the swearing-in ceremony. I saw one photograph taken from inside the tent where they had arranged dozens of big flower pots in front of the dais to attempt to block PRD militants who they are sure will attempt to disrupt the proceedings.
AMLO knows he can't stop the inauguration but what he can do is give Mexico a big black eye. Then he'll take to the streets to say, "What a big black eye Felipe Calderón has given us. Boo hoo hoo."
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TAGS: Mexico, Felipe Calderón, PRD, AMLO
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