The National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) has always used as the thermometer the Zocalo of Mexico City. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum underwent the test this Sunday with a total full in the great place in the capital center. The event closed a national tour for its first year in power. The president and her party are in the mood of celebration for the positive balance left by these 12 months: poverty reduction, an economy that remains despite the tariff war undertaken by Donald Trump and a turn to the security policy that allowed a reduction in homicides. But the clouds look on the horizon of the year two of the president. The corruption scandals threaten to splash the legacy of the fourth transformation, as the movement is self -demonstrated.
“Honesty is no exception, it is the rule. Who betrays the people faces justice,” said the president, who wore a dress with indigenous embroidery icing, the distinctive color of Morena. The message is a reminder, former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Its management, from 2018 to 2024, has been touched by two recent scandals. The first, because relatives of the former Secretary of the Navy are involved in one. The second, for the capture of Hernán Bermúdez, a former police chief with links with organized crime, who was a man very close to the former Secretary of the Interior of López Obrador ,.
Some analysts venture that these two cases of corruption give the opportunity to Sheinbaum to uncheck López Obrador, his mentor and political reference. The president, however, has categorically rejected the idea. “I received the inheritance of an honest and committed man, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The conservatives have determined to separate, that we break. His goal is none but to end the movement and that we divide. That will not happen,” said the president.
The support for his predecessor was noticed in the stands. In the first ranks of the square, Andrés Manuel López Beltrán, one of the children of the former president, who makes his own career as secretary of Morena, a party that austerity has as a command. Andy, as it is called, was one of the game after being captured on vacation in Japan in a hotel out of reach for the vast majority of Mexicans. Even so, Sheinbaum recovered the figure of his predecessor as North: “It was, it is and will always be an example of honesty, austerity and love of the people. It never sold to the powerful.”
Although Sheinbaum denies it, there is also break. It is demonstrated by the reduction of violence, one of the main achievements of its incipient mandate, which is still five years ahead. The president announced one today, an achievement that relies on a change of strategy in security policy: more research and hard hand. “Between September 2024 and September 2025, 27 daily homicides were committed,” he said. The reduction in some states is significant. Zacatecas, records an 88% drop in murders. Chiapas 73%, Jalisco 72%, Nuevo León 61%, Guanajuato 47%. These last three entities are governed by the opposition.
Sheinbaum travels between the continuity of the project he received and the need to forge his own legacy. Among the first achievements of Morena’s policies, he highlighted poverty reduction, which went from 45% in the country during the “long neoliberal night”, to 29% where they are now. “There are 13.5 million Mexicans who left poverty. It is an achievement that will not be able to erase any hate campaign or the lies of the right. It is an irrefutable fact,” said the president.
The reduction of inequality has been achieved through a robust social support program. These are a fundamental pillar, of 78%, which makes it the best -evaluated president in its first year in more than two decades since the alternation, when the PRI lost the presidential election. Sheinbaum’s approval is even higher than López Obrador (72%).
Four out of ten Mexicans consider social support as the main start of Sheinbaum start, according to a recent Enkoll survey for the country. The president announced three new programs on Sunday. One contemplates resources for all women from 60 to 64 years. The second extends the Rita Cetina scholarships, which bimonthly send 103 dollars to all family with students in secondary schools, to primary students. The third expands the doctors network that serves older and disabled adults at home. “It is the most ambitious social plan in the history of Mexico,” Sheinbaum said.
In her accountability event, the president has given positive figures on the economy. “We have a growth of 1.2%, compared to catastrophists who anticipated a fall. Unemployment is 2.7%, one of the lowest levels in the world, the weight is stable and inflation in September was 3.7%,” said Sheinbaum. The president also stressed the increase in the minimum wage, another of the inheritance he received from López Obrador. This grew by 135% in real terms after 36 years of being static. It went from 88 pesos (4.7 dollars) to 279 pesos ($ 15).
Morena’s social policy has put considerable pressure on public finances. The executive’s head has announced this morning that his government is preparing to raise 500,000 million pesos (27,000 million dollars) more this year, a figure that exceeds last year without raising taxes. Sheinbaum, however, has chosen as legislative priority that is, in fact, a fiscal tool to reinforce government coffers.
“Its objective is to make the provision of justice, faster more expedited, guarantee the prompt action against money laundering, and prevent the protection from becoming the life shelter of the potentates before they do not want to pay their taxes,” said the president, who has tried to reassure the spirits among the human rights groups.
Tens of thousands of people arrived at the Zocalo de México three hours before the message of the president. The trucks that transported many of the attendees could be parked in the streets surrounding the square. It is a sample of the Morena mobilization muscle, which has been carrying supporters for several years before its politicians. There were early SNTE teachers, other union organizations, such as the railroad union, and militants of the Green Party. Not so long ago, they all swore loyalty to the PRI, but today they have found shelter inside the leftist movement.
