This is Claudia Sheinbaum – DW – 06/03/2024

Mexico already has a president. On Sunday, June 2, 2024, the elections declared the winner of official candidate Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, the first woman to win a presidential election in the two centuries since the country’s independence.

With 58.79 percent of the vote, according to a quick count by the National Electoral Institute (INE), Sheinbaum was elected by approximately 35.5 million Mexicans, five million more than those who supported his predecessor, Andrés Manuel López (AMLO).

Experts consulted by DW place the outgoing president as a fundamental pillar in his candidate’s electoral success, but this has had no impact on Sheinbaum’s political profile and style, which is quite the opposite.

“Sheinbaum has cultivated an image of seriousness and technical competence over his academic and professional career, which has given him a sense of competence and dedication that has been fundamental in gaining the trust of voters,” Angelica Cazarin, director of the Center for Political and Social Studies at the College of Tlaxcala, Mexico, told DW.

A political trajectory marked by research

Sheinbaum, a descendant of Jews who emigrated to Mexico in the 20th century, was born in that country’s capital on June 24, 1962. His desire for science was probably born from his parents, who were left-wing and involved in scientific activities in the community, which led him to graduate with a master’s degree and a doctorate from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and pursue a career in energy engineering. Hence, throughout this adventure, many have nicknamed him “The Doctor”.

It was during this time at the university that his political career became intertwined, as he had ties to various student movements. “I think we should consider him a social activist before he is a politician or a scientist,” Andrea Samaniego, a professor at the UNAM Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, told DW.

His entry into politics occurred in the first years of the new millennium, when he was for six years in charge of the Environment Secretariat of Mexico City, whose head of government at the time was already López Obrador.

In 2006, AMLO was the spokesperson for the elected President of Mexico’s Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) – now integrated into the opposition coalition – and the Labor Party (PT) as its presidential candidate. A year later, in 2007, Sheinbaum became part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which won the Nobel Peace Prize that year.

Between 2015 and 2017, she was head of the delegation in Tlalpan, south of Mexico City, until she took over the government of Mexico City in 2018, with an agenda focused on “mobility policies, sustainability, security and the management of the COVID pandemic -19”, highlights Cazarín.

“In politics you see the influence of his own scientific training, because he promotes evidence-based public policy,” Khemvirg Puente, a researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, tells DW. “These are areas that can differentiate it from the López Obrador government, where the most important thing for him was loyalty, even if his staff did not have technical competencies,” he added.

In 2023, his efforts were focused on the so-called Change Defense Coordination, a coalition of the Morena parties, the Labor Party (PT) and the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM), which are part of the Let’s Keep Making History coalition, winner of Sunday’s election.

Personalities and government agenda

Sheinbaum’s own profile finds parallels internationally. Cazarin draws parallels with Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and even former German Chancellor Angela Merkel: “Although Merkel has been a national leader, her pragmatic, science-based approach, as well as her renewable energy policy, resonate with principles that Sheinbaum could apply to Mexico,” he told DW.

For Andrea Samaniego, Sheinbaum can be compared to Dilma Rousseff, “who comes from a middle-class family and is linked to social movements; both are precursors of charismatic leaders,” she says.

In this sense, Puente believes that Sheinbaum will try to capitalize on AMLO’s style, as is the case with the “manneras”, but due to what it means for a woman to occupy the position of president of the country, she will have to introduce changes not only in gender policies, but also in the rest of the policies that are going to be generated: health, social policies, human rights, public security. She will have to create a different profile,” emphasizes Puente.

For Samaniego, Sheinbaum’s speech is located in a center-left, statist ideological current, although with nuances, with a progressive agenda with a strong presence on environmental issues.

The environment, renewable energy, migration and violence are issues that experts point to as key in the profile of the new president-elect, although they believe that it will take time for his leadership to be effective due to López Obrador’s strong personality as head of government.

Wake up AMLO

Since her first public position under the umbrella of the AMLO government in 2000, Claudia Sheinbaum’s collaboration with the current president has been close. She accompanied him in his 2012 and 2018 presidential campaigns, and participated in the founding of the party that won the last six-year term, the National Regeneration Movement (Morena).

Analysts indicate that, despite being possibly Continuity with the policies of the López Obrador administration – such as the Fourth Transformation (4T) and security strategies to reduce violence and corruption – his academic experience, his personality and the expectations built around his personality will differentiate him from the AMLO style during this six-year term.

“She may not seem charismatic. In fact, she is, because she has never come across as a regional action figure, but rather a more executive person, and that will make a difference in López Obrador’s style,” says Puente. “She will want to build herself less as a popular leader, more as a figurehead of a nation,” he adds.

(CP)