“Full house,” said the new president Claudia Sheinbaum when opening her first “mañanera del pueblo” on Wednesday, marking a new stage of the popular morning program established by her predecessor and which became the main political showcase in Mexico.
From the same room of the National Palace where former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador offered his lectures for six years, but with a renovated set, Sheinbaum began the first “morning” dedicated to remembering the events of October 2, 1968, known as the ” Tlatelolco Massacre”, in which several hundred people were massacred in the middle of a student demonstration in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Mexico City and which marked the struggles of the leftist movements in the country.
“It is an obligation today. I am a daughter of ’68. My mother participated in that movement,” said the new president when announcing that her government would offer a public apology to the relatives of the victims and survivors of the massacre for the crimes of crimes against humanity committed by the authorities.
Sheinbaum decided to preserve the successful communicative formula of his mentor and even at a similar time—at 7:30 in the morning—to set the country’s daily agenda very early.
After her overwhelming victory in the June 2 elections, the former mayor of the capital began meetings with the press that she usually called around noon and that did not last more than half an hour.
In these conferences, the new president tried to open with an announcement and then took some questions from journalists, which for many was a kind of preparation for this new stage.
During the former president’s six-year term, which ended on Monday, the popular 70-year-old Mexican politician used to spend between two and three hours daily, from Monday to Friday, speaking standing in front of the cameras, answering questions from journalists—many of them like-minded. to his government—or by rebuking his adversaries. The media were one of their most common targets.
This is how the “mornings” became a powerful communication weapon that helped the former ruler “win the battle for control of reality,” explained communication consultant Luis Antonio Espino in his book “López Obrador: the power of speech populist”.
Although the 62-year-old scientist has tried to keep up with López Obrador, there are differences at the communication level.
“As a communicator she is different,” said Roy Campos, president of the polling company Consulta-Mitofsky, recognizing that Sheinbaum has a “parsimonious” style and always tries to convey an image of a “university professor who tries to demonstrate seriousness and truth.” awareness”.
This distances her from the ways of López Obrador, skilled in very colloquial language and confrontational with his adversaries.
According to Espino, the charismatic former ruler managed to create “emotional ties” that allowed him to sustain “his true goal, which is the change of political regime in Mexico to replace the weak and imperfect democratic institutions of the country with a new political and liberal, nationalist and populist”.
The figures of popular support proved him right in his farewell. López Obrador left power as Mexico’s most popular president in recent history with support levels above 60%.
It will now be Sheinbaum’s turn to try to secure the same attention.
Everything will depend, Campos clarified, on how she performs in front of the cameras. “She is going to try to create that empathy that López Obrador did create. We are going to see if this daily presence ends up giving her, either in agenda control or in popularity.”
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