The remaining days of September, October, and the first half of November, a period in which the Federation Expenditure Budget for 2024 must be analyzed, discussed, modified and approved, will be times of blackmail and betrayal. In the next two months we will see the true face of politicians who claim to be faithful to the Fourth Transformation, but who, with the pretext of legitimate dissidence, in support of the claims and reproaches of Marcelo Ebrard Casaubón regarding the internal process of Morena, will put obstacles to the approval of spending scheduled for next year.
That faction, presumably made up of 33 federal legislators, is linked to the former Secretary of Foreign Affairs, who on September 6, 2023, upon being defeated in the contest for the Coordination of the Defense Committees of the Fourth Transformation, exhaled the bitterest gall. of his bitterness and frustration regarding Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo: “We are not going to submit to that lady,” he said, according to a chronicle by journalist Georgina Zerega, published by the Spanish newspaper The country.
It is foreseeable that this faction, or some of its members, will put obstacles in the way of the approval of resources for the social programs promoted by the López Obrador Government and that they will also raise walls to contain and avoid the cuts that the Chamber of Deputies intends to make to spending. waste of some Government institutions, such as the Judicial Branch of the Federation, and of some constitutionally autonomous organizations, prone to budget abuse, such as the National Electoral Institute.
The approval of the 2024 Expenditure Budget could be trapped between the insane appetites of those who would seek to exchange their votes for some privilege or perk that guarantees them remaining in relevant public positions, under the protection of official payrolls.
The information published this Thursday, September 21, 2023 in the newspapers of Reform Group is premonitory of the discord: “Marcelo Ebrard and a group of 33 deputies related to him yesterday warned the coordinator of Morena in San Lázaro, Ignacio Mier, that they will not allow themselves to be intimidated and asked to be taken into account in the opinion of the 2024 Expenditure Budget Representative Daniel Gutiérrez Gutiérrez indicated that they informed Mier that they will create a block in the Chamber. ‘The objective is to strengthen legislative work, strengthen the division of Powers,’ said the Morenoist legislator.”
The dissidence of that bloc and its potential alliance with the opposition could put at risk the approval of the 543 thousand 933 million labeled for the Welfare item, which guarantees all the Government’s social programs, such as pensions for the elderly, scholarships for young people, support for people with disabilities.
These supports are rights that became legal imperatives when they were included in the fourth constitutional article, which warns: “The State will guarantee the delivery of economic support to people who have permanent disabilities in the terms established by the Law. To receive this Priority will be given to those under eighteen years of age, indigenous people and Afro-Mexicans up to the age of sixty-four, and people who are in poverty.”
Which also adds: “Persons over sixty-eight years of age have the right to receive from the State a non-contributory pension in the terms established by the Law. In the case of indigenous people and Afro-Mexicans this benefit will be granted from sixty-five years of age.”
Which imposes specific obligations: “The State will establish a system of scholarships for students at all school levels of the public education system, with priority given to those belonging to families who are in poverty, to guarantee with equity the right to education.”
The supposedly conciliatory and negotiating fury of the faction of federal deputies that responds to the interests of Marcelo Ebrard could give in to the claims of the right-wing oligarchy, to the extent of hindering the reduction of the wasteful and frivolous budgets of the Judicial Branch of the Federation. , which demands a total of 84,792 million pesos by 2024 and the National Electoral Institute, which demands 37,770 million pesos.
The majority faction of Morenoist legislators intends to cut 20 billion pesos from the judiciary, which gives rise to abuses and waste, and also reduce at least four billion pesos from the claims of the National Electoral Institute, just to cite the most significant cases.
Currently Morena and its allies from the Labor Party and the Green Party have 275 legislators in the Chamber of Deputies. If they lost the support of the 33 deputies who follow Marcelo Ebrard, the faction that supports the Fourth Transformation would add only 242 popular representatives, insufficient to achieve the simple majority of 251 deputies required to approve the 2024 Federation Expenditure Budget Although the possibility would always be open that some legislators disenchanted with other parties, such as the PRI and the PRD, would join the Morena majority.
Last June, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) published its 2020 National Civic Culture Survey, in which 25 percent of Mexicans, the largest segment, considered that the Government authority that best represents their interests is the President of the Republic, while only three percent conferred that trust on senators and deputies. This survey is a robust sample that includes the opinions of more than 25 thousand people from all over the country.
In that same survey, 33 percent of Mexicans considered that legislators, when working in their respective chambers, defend only the interests of their parties, while 30.4 percent estimated that legislators only represent their very petty and personal interests. , above the interests of the people.
In the negotiations for the approval of the 2024 Expenditure Budget, there will be deputies who will pressure the Morena party and the Government of the Republic, to impose, above the interests of the country, their very personal interests of achieving some juicy public office or running for office. some important candidacy.
Federal deputies should not lose sight of what is established in article 59 of the Political Constitution of Mexico, which states: “Senators may be elected for up to two consecutive terms and Deputies to the Congress of the Union for up to four consecutive terms. The nomination may only be made by the same party or by any of the coalition parties that nominated them, unless they have resigned or lost their membership before half of their term.”
If some of these deputies sought to be re-elected to their positions, they would hardly have the support of Morena and its allies from the Labor Party and the Green Party. And a different party could not nominate them to participate in the elections on Sunday, June 2, 2024.
The face of blackmail and betrayal – stimulated by resentment and frustration – appears in the ranks of Morena’s faction of federal deputies. The people are watching them and they would surely have to pay for their guilt if they betray the project of the Fourth Transformation.
Pedro Mellado Rodríguez
Journalist who for more than four decades has been a careful and critical observer of public life in the country. He has covered all news sources and has held all possible responsibilities in the media. His column Puntos y Contrapuntos has been published for more than three decades, in newspapers such as El Occidental, Siglo 21 and Mural, in Guadalajara, Jalisco. He is a professor of journalism at ITESO, the Jesuit University of Guadalajara.
