Idioma

 

 

Enrique Pena Nieto’s presence in the National Palace, where he will address the nation for the first time, is not a nod towards the desire for absolute, monarchical power – as Lopez Obrador parrots are prone to repeat – but rather a return to the republican way of conceiving political power and putting it into practice.

This style of government was abandoned a few political terms ago.  It wasn’t only let go by the PAN, who confused austerity and simplicity with being simpletons, but also by a left-wing dedicated to storming the tribunes and wearing pig masks with the hope of getting on television.

Pena Nieto’s goal is to get the county back on its feet, from its shape right down to its foundations, to be able to give the federal government back its image of seriousness, credibility and respectability that it has lost over the years.

Every one of us has been responsible for badmouthing the Presidency and every one of us has had to pay the price for doing so.  The people that have held the job of president have obviously been the most responsible for creating this sentiment, but also those who mix up democracy and freedom with treating the figure of the president in a highly informal and vulgar manner.

On December 1, Mexicans don’t want to see someone with the arrogance of Vicente Fox on their television screen, who, when being sworn in, said “hello” to his daughters before swearing on the Constitution.  Nor do they want to see and hear a drunk-sounding president start singing El Perro Negro on a podium bearing the label of the federal government, as Felipe Calderon did.

Mexicans expect a clear and strong message from Pena Nieto, a message free of ambiguity and different, different not only in how it relates to how the country will be run in the future, but also different in how it is presented to the nation in Pena Nieto’s first presidential address.

Every Mexican president has used the Presidential Palace according to his own convictions and way of thinking.  For the PAN Head-of-States, it was just one more empty and ahistorical building they had to begrudgingly go to every May 1 and September 15.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador ended up seeing it as a nice place for a bedroom.  Had he won the presidency, he would have liked to fancy himself as Benito Juarez, sleeping in the Benemerito bed.

Pena Nieto is coming from a political environment where politicians still conserve a level of statesmanship.  They still address each other formally, follow protocol and adhere to the ceremonious, which goes in stark contrast to the uncouth pragmatism practiced in other political circles.

Without a doubt, the way the message is presented will have to go hand-in-hand with strong content.  The respectful image of the country must be brought back to life, but everything will depend on the meaning expressed in the presidential message.

The future government must bring back certain principals and concepts and use them as their pillars.  Many are hoping that the first words out of Pena Nieto’s mouth will address social justice and the 57 million Mexicans who are immersed in poverty.

There is nothing more stately or democratic, or modern, than a government that is dedicated to exterminating hunger and poverty at its roots.

The most violent sectors of the left-wing, those who are dedicated to making threats and blackmailing, those who don’t know how to do anything else but achieve notoriety on the front page of a newspaper or on TV, are quite pleased with themselves for having turned the swearing  in Congress into a drive-thru-style ceremony, have not even noticed that they have achieved the “miracle” of giving new life and historic meaning to politics in the National Palace.