Sheinbaum recognizes women’s struggle in first speech as president-elect

Mexico City. In her first speech as President-Elect of the United Mexican States, the first woman in history to achieve this highest position, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo recognized the struggle of these “heroines, both the visible ones and the millions of invisible women of generations and generations who have made it possible for us to achieve this high recognition.”

Before the ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, among several dozen special guests at the solemn session, he said – in a veiled message regarding the judicial reform in progress – that on June 2, the people of Mexico “also decided by majority on a true system of justice, which is equal for all Mexicans. A system that also includes the separation between economic power and the power of justice, a state of law, therefore we should not fear democracy, said Juárez, democracy is the destiny of humanity, freedom, its indestructible arm.”

He did have an explicit message for the magistrates of the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Branch of the Federation (TEPJF), when he pointed out, from the chamber where the composition of both chambers of the Congress of the Union will be defined in the coming days, that the electorate has already decided on the matter.

“On June 2, the people of Mexico also expressed their will for the composition of the Congress of the Union, and the electoral rule is clear in the assignment of majority and proportional representation legislators. I am convinced that the heads of the Judicial Branch in electoral matters are thoroughly familiar with this issue because they have acted in this way in past elections and they will also know how to respect the Constitution, the laws and the will of the people.”

Previously, at the beginning of her message, Sheinbaum pointed out that “it is the first time in 200 years of the Republic that a woman, President, with an A, has received recognition as President-elect. As I have said on other occasions, I do not assume it as an individual triumph or as a personal effort. Today, already marked in the history of Mexico, I did not arrive alone, we all arrived,” she expressed from the rostrum of the Superior Chamber of the TEPJF, the highest authority in the matter.

After receiving the certificate of majority from Mónica Soto, president of the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Branch of the Federation, the President-elect praised the “historic and unprecedented” feature of the result of the June 2 election, when “our movement,” she stressed, received 35 million 924 thousand 519 votes, equivalent to 59.76 percent of the total vote and 32 points above the second place.

In front of ministers, the president of the National Electoral Institute, Guadalupe Taddei, the plenary session of the Superior Chamber of the TEPJF and members of the current cabinet and the one that will accompany her in her government task, Sheinbaum stressed that the people of Mexico showed their civic conscience, their democratic vocation and their republican sense expressed clearly and forcefully on election day.

She said that she takes on this responsibility “nourished” by the strength that comes from our ancestors, our mothers, our daughters and our granddaughters.

“Today we all arrived and with that I commit to fight to continue building equality and freedom for all Mexican women, especially for the most vulnerable, and to take care, as we women do, responsibly of the future of our own.”

He continued with the meanings of the June 2 election that must be honored, especially for the voters.

“The majority of people voted for an honest government to continue, with results, with love for the country and with love for the people of Mexico. In other words, the majority of citizens do not want the return of the government of a few or of arrogance or influence peddling. They do not want the return of corruption or privileges. That is the mandate of the people of Mexico and it is up to us to continue making it a reality. In other words, the mandate is clear: to continue and advance with the fourth transformation of public life in Mexico that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador began in 2018.”

This means, he added, continuing to build a free Mexico, at peace, with rights, fraternal, sovereign, democratic and fair.

“I believe that the freedom with which Mexicans voted is what a government that does not repress means,” he said.

The president-elect received applause during her speech in the podium of this Superior Chamber.

He said that the Fourth Transformation, for which the majority of citizens voted, conceives education, access to health, healthy food, decent housing, fair wages and sufficient pensions as rights and not as privileges; in other words, they chose a welfare state and not a return to the neoliberal system.

They also voted for a Mexico at peace. “We will do it with strategy, the war against drugs will not return, we will continue to build peace with justice; a fraternal Mexico.”

Likewise, may the people of Mexico never again be treated with classism, discrimination and racism or women with machismo.

“That our roots and our destiny are in fraternity, in humanism, in always being treated as equals, a sovereign, free, independent Mexico. It was made clear on June 2, as the Constitution says, from the Sentiments of the Nation, that sovereignty resides essentially and originally in the people and that is why the mandate is not to move away and that this sovereignty is always above groups or individuals, no matter how powerful they may seem.”

Sheinbaum Pardo then spoke of democracy, as the power emanating from the people, by the people and for the people, and with her vote she demands more democracy and justice.

“There is a popular mandate: justice in the broadest sense of the word means social justice, environmental justice, justice for women, justice for all people, and also justice equal for the poor and the rich. In other words, the people of Mexico also decided by majority to have a true justice system that is equal for all Mexicans.”

There, the applause – including that of the President Minister, Norma Piña – made the President-elect pause for a moment in her speech.

Then, at the end of his speech, he reaffirmed his commitment to govern with honesty, respecting the independence of the powers.

“I will govern for all Mexicans and be assured that we will feel each day of our origin and also of our future. No one should fear anything, on the contrary, the future is promising, we are a country of extraordinary, unique, wonderful people, we will rise to the occasion.”

“I make the commitment not to disappoint and to put all my effort, my knowledge, my heart, my effort, and even my life itself to serve my country and my people. Long live Mexico,” he said.