Photo: Fernando Llano Associated Press Presidential candidate Xóchitl Galvez during the launch of her electoral campaign in Irapuato, Mexico in March 2024
Lisa-Marie Gervais
Published at 0:00
- Americas
Xóchitl Gálvez is in great shape. Extroverted and voluble, since the start of the electoral campaign she has multiplied attacks on her rival, the favorite, Claudia Sheinbaum, having nothing to lose. His last low blow ? Calling his opponent a “narcocandidate”, thus accusing her of reaching out to organized crime. “He is someone who stands out for his brilliance,” says Jean-François Prud’homme, political scientist at Colegio de México. In the Senate, she could disguise herself to promote her ideas. » She already showed up there dressed in a dinosaur costume to criticize electoral reform, which she described as “Jurassic plan“.
Born in the state of Hidalgo, north of the capital, the one who gave up her post as senator to enter the race for the presidency does not hesitate to highlight his modest origins, recounting having sold fruit jellies (gelatinas) in the street during his childhood. This did not prevent his impressive social rise. A graduate in computer engineering from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Xóchitl Gálvez, now 61, has become a successful businesswoman in the technology world. A self-made woman who bragged about not being controlled by anyone, “not even [her] own husband”.
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Proudly wearing the huipuil, traditional embroidered clothing, the one who led the Commission of Indigenous Peoples under the government of Vicente Fox (2000-2006), of the National Action Party (PAN), does not hesitate to claim her indigenous Otomi origins, to speak of the foundation for indigenous women and children which she directed before entering politics. Supported by an economic elite, adept at resorting to the private sector, the former mayor of a bourgeois district of Mexico City, however, stands out for some of her positions which tend towards the center, or even the left, on the political spectrum. She intends to support social policies and does not adopt conservative discourse on the issues of abortion and LGBTQ +.
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This text is published via our Perspectives section.
Charismatic and tenacious, Xóchitl Gálvez fights hard to take her place, which she maintains she owes to no one. Except perhaps to one of her greatest adversaries, whom she has repeatedly accused of being corrupt: the president himself. “By being the subject of Mr. López Obrador's harangues during his mañaneras [morning press conferences], she has become a greater character than she wasn't. In a way, the opposition promoted his candidacy and made him its main adversary,” observes Mr. Prud’homme.
The fact remains that she still has a lot of work to do to make up the gap that separates her from her rival and win the hearts of voters. Particularly that of young people, who voted very little for her during a “mock” election organized on certain campuses across the country at the beginning of May. She came in third place, obtaining 7.7% of voting intentions, a rate flirting with abstention. Very unconcerned by these results, Xóchitl Gálvez replied: “It doesn’t matter. We'll see each other on June 2 and there, I will win. »