Former President of Mexico, Ernesto Zedillo, Warns Against Democratic Regression in Some Countries

The former president of Mexico, Ernesto Zedillo, said that one of the greatest challenges faced today is defending the democratic regression that is being experienced in some countries.

“I think the biggest challenge is to protect democracy, if we protect democracy, if we avoid this democratic regression that we are seeing in some countries and heal the wounds that have been caused, then I am optimistic,” which earned him applause from the assistants.

When participating in a forum held by Actinver in Mexico City, together with the former president of Spain José María Aznar, Zedillo said that to have democracy it is necessary for citizens to believe in democracy and not in cults, in a context where in Latin America and in Mexico space has been opened for populism.

“In the past, some managed to seize power with the military. What has happened is that, they have learned how the system works, and they like democracy until they access power and once they have accessed it, they seek to erode democracy “It is a very serious problem, because the way to gain access through democracy is through deception, demagoguery and populism,” he said.

Zedillo emphasized that “every time some politician who does not understand some things, and wants to insult someone, calls them neoliberal.”

The presence of former President Zedillo in Mexico caused high expectations after President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said in his morning conference that he would like to ask him about the pension reform approved in his six-year term and that created the Afore system and that will condemn the workers to receive a pension of less than half of their salary, as well as the disappearance of the railroads as well as the indebtedness of Mexicans through Fobraproa.

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During his participation, the former president of Mexico said that although progress has been made in recent years, there have also been failures that raise doubts about the viability and validity of economic policies and schemes.

“At this moment there is great concern, not only regarding the economic issue, but also regarding the political issues that some people, who have every right, leads them to question, if some of the references that have been made In most countries in recent decades they have ceased to be valid and we have to look for something different or even something very different,” he said.

In that sense, he said that on a topic like this one must be considerably more reflective and not only refer to the big labels. Market economy, capitalism, or neoliberalism.

After joking with the phrase that “every time a politician who doesn’t understand some things wants to insult someone, he calls them neoliberal,” Zedillo described himself as a classic liberal.

“I am a liberal, nineteenth-century, classic, traditional. And unfortunately I no longer have any physical attributes that I would say, I’m a neo. I have nothing neo about me,” he said.

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In his presentation, Zedillo said that other characteristics of populist governments are the submission of other powers.

“They try to have a submissive, majority Congress as far as possible, and when any of the other powers of the State try to carry out their constitutional work, they dedicate themselves to finding a way for that power to be made up of individuals who are going to adhere not to what the Constitution says but what the sovereign wants and desires,” he said.

In that sense, he said that if we really live in democracy when the counterweights that have been built to strengthen the State are weakened.

“Is it really a democracy when the checks and balances are weakened, when the legitimacy of the judiciary is questioned, when other organs of the State are attacked and destroyed?” he added.

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2024-01-25 09:28:40
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