Academics, writers, and political scientists agree that with the current policy of the president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador is leading the country to authoritarianism, populism, intolerance, and economic stagnation, all these, antidemocratic factors.
At the dialogue table entitled “Liberal Disillusion: Understanding Discontent with Democracy” in which they participated, the journalist, Héctor Aguilar Camín; the historian, Enrique Krauze; the researcher at the Center for Economic Research and Teaching (CIDE), Ana Laura Magaloni; the columnist, Valeria Moy; the writer, Guillermo Sheridan; and the political scientist, José Woldenberg, each explained their concerns and why.
In particular, Enrique Krauze considered that there is a “delicate moment between the press and power”, so he called on López Obrador to respect the media in his morning conferences, whom he has described as the underworld of journalism. At the same time requested transparency of contracts signed with the media.
He recalled that since 2010, there is jurisprudence in the Supreme Court of Justice that mentions “that the greater the public relevance of the character in question, the greater must be the tolerance of that character with criticism”, which must be complied with.
“I would like to call for those morning conferences, have a tone and an effective presence of authentic dialogue and plurality in those who come, there must be a plural representation of the press and the Mexican opinion in these conferences,” said Krauze.
Meanwhile, Aguilar Camín said that the degree of populism that exists in Mexico can be measured as the degrees of alcohol, if it is in excess is harmful. Based on the book by Jean Werner Muller, what is populism ?, defined what are the characteristics of populism, including that the official in power, says represent the real people, and that the rest of the political representations do not they are, action in which the president falls.
Another point is that a populist appropriates the Legislative and Judicial Powers, and the “powers of the states,” a situation that is already present with López Obrador, according to Aguilar Camín.
One of the characteristics of the populist is that it “disdains,” “contains” and “dismantles” the autonomous organs. In that sense, he said that in Mexico, López Obrador has already had “disagreements” and “criticisms” towards the National Commission of Human Rights and the National Electoral Institute.
In addition, he said, a populist government, “generates new clienteles that depend on the state government,” in that sense with its social programs Lopez Obrador will have 23 million Mexicans attached to receive cash.
The last characteristic is to make “new constitutions”, which allow institutions to change irreversibly. In the case of Mexico, this proposal to modify the Constitution is underway, which would represent “a process of destruction of democracy through democratic procedures.”
Ana Magaloni spoke from the perspective of young people in a marginalized neighborhood, who “think that the law is only for scrubbing”, as well as institutions and government.
He considered that access to justice is required since every judicial process is “long”, “laborious” and therefore a lawyer is sought, without forgetting that each local judicial power is “manageable”, “corrupt”, and “weak”.
“If we do not make a country that incorporates more people, where we have more space to have freedom and personal development, it will be very difficult, neither López Obrador nor anyone else (will be able to compose), the country is stuck in verticality, exclusion, the inequality and lack of prosperity of many young people, “said the CIDE researcher.
For its part, Valeria Moy criticized that before the serious problems of the country, think of “easy recipes”, as would social programs. “We love to think that inequality will end with social programs (…), I think we are looking for easy answers to very complex problems,” he said.
In his speech, the essayist and narrator, Guillermo Sheridan mentioned that citizens have ended disappointed in the Independence, the Reformation, the Revolution, and now “since the government of President López Obrador came into power, it is inevitable to feel a huge disappointment before a person capable of declaring in all seriousness that Mexico has deposits of moral greatness that have no comparison in the world. “
He added: “The head of a balanced person does not work that way (…) Beware of something like that, (…) not only is a reckless judgment, but an intimidating warning that a president can say with complete certainty and with aplomb justice is not the same as the law (…) it can not be assumed that justice is above the law “.
For his part, the extitular of the IFE, José Woldenberg, spoke about his concerns with the policy of López Obrador. One of them is that democratization can be lost, especially by “the speech of clear authoritarian dyes of the President of the Republic, that is, that does not respond to arguments with arguments, but with disqualifications when a different point of view arises, a different analysis, even the different data, the spring that is activated is that of disqualification “.
Another of his concerns is the president’s contempt for civil society, and his formulation of justice above the law. He stressed that López Obrador must respect the Constitution and comply with the law, “because otherwise we enter the world of discretion and caprice.”
The dialogue table was part of the International Forum “Challenges to freedom in the 21st century”, organized by the International Foundation for Freedom, which heads the Nobel Prize for Literature, Mario Vargas; and the University of Guadalajara.
The forum continued with two other tables with the themes, “The crisis of political pluralism: freedom cornered?”, And “The guarantees of freedom: institutions as democratic counterweights.”
Source: proceso
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