(Bloomberg) — Claudia Sheinbaum was sworn in Tuesday as Mexico’s first female president, vowing to secure foreign investment while building on the legacy of a popular predecessor who was not always friendly to business interests.
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Taking over from outgoing leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Sheinbaum pledged to continue her party colleague and political mentor’s efforts to improve the lives of Mexico’s poorest people as she delivered her inaugural address in Congress.
“I am a mother, grandmother, scientist and a woman of faith, and from today, by the will of the Mexican people, the Constitutional President of the United Mexican States,” Sheinbaum said. “I will not abandon you. I call on you to continue making history.”
Sheinbaum, a former mayor of Mexico City and member of Lopez Obrador’s Morena party, won the most votes in Mexican presidential history on his way to a dominant victory in June’s elections.
Together with the broad support she inherited in part from the popular Lopez Obrador, she will govern with large majorities in Mexico’s Congress after Morena’s coalition won two-thirds of control of the lower house and fell just short of that milestone in the Senate.
In the speech, she reiterated key proposals she presented on the campaign trail, pledging to improve Lopez Obrador’s welfare programs with scholarships for students of all levels, strengthen the health care system and provide cash transfers to women who do not yet qualify for a pension. .
Sheinbaum also promised that private foreign and domestic investment in Mexico will be safe during her administration, emphasizing that it was not only the poor who benefited under Lopez Obrador, but also the business community. She vowed to continue the cuts that characterized her predecessor’s government before sharply increasing spending in his final year in office.
Supporters greeted Sheinbaum and AMLO, as the outgoing president is known, with hugs and calls for photos as they arrived at the convention in modest cars they had used to symbolize their distance from the corruption and luxury of previous administrations.
Congressional power
Sheinbaum’s allies in Congress have already begun using their majorities to pass sweeping constitutional changes, including a controversial overhaul of Mexico’s judiciary that would require the election of all federal judges and members of the Supreme Court.
The plan has raised concerns that it will erode the ruling party’s checks on power and pose risks to Mexican democracy. Sheinbaum pushed back on these claims, saying it is only intended to give the judiciary more autonomy and guarantee the rule of law.
Yet hundreds of justice reform workers marched down Reforma Avenue in Mexico City as Sheinbaum spoke to protest the overhaul, while other demonstrators held up signs at the convention.
Reform of the justice system is the biggest of the many challenges AMLO has left for his successor. It contributed to a sharp weakening of the Mexican peso in the aftermath of the election, while also sparking strikes and criticism from the US – the country’s largest trading partner. Morena lawmakers are now pushing to implement other reforms sought by AMLO, including a bill to give priority to state energy companies over private ones.
She will also inherit an economic slowdown that started in the last months of 2023. In August, the central bank cut its growth forecast for this year to 1.5% from 2.4% previously, with a further slowdown to 1.2% for 2025. And AMLO The country is left with Mexico’s largest budget deficit in almost forty year, together with persistent inflation that remains above the central bank’s target.
Sheinbaum has pledged to reduce the deficit to less than 3.5% of gross domestic product, a target that some analysts consider too ambitious given that the deficit currently stands at 5.9%.
In the speech, Sheinbaum pledged to implement an energy transition to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while limiting oil production at state drilling company Pemex to 1.8 million barrels per day.
Sheinbaum also pledged to maintain positive working relations with the US and Canada, saying economic cooperation will strengthen the three countries.
At the end of her speech, Sheinbaum celebrated that for the first time a woman will hold Mexico’s top job, calling it a victory for those who “had dreamed of the possibility that one day it will no longer matter whether we are women or male are born. , and we could realize our dreams and desires without our gender determining our fate.”
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