The Covid-19 pandemic seems to have cooled the political thermometer in Mexico. However, the proximity of the 2021 midterm elections has started to raise temperatures. On one hand, we have the unexpected and overwhelming triumphs of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in the states of Hidalgo and Coahuila in elections for local congresses and city councils, in which the once invincible PRI regained momentum and prevailed over the National Regeneration Movement (“MORENA” by its acronym in Spanish) and National Action (PAN) parties. These triumphs were attributed to the good political work of the states’ governors, who are both affiliated with the PRI, and to the general disorder which exists within the ruling MORENA party. The MORENA party is currently in power of the federal government and has encountered a lot of conflict in selecting its leader, so its party members are conflicted and divided. In this regard, a selection process to select the leader of the national party is moving forward, with the intervention of the National Electoral Institute (INE), the highest electoral authority in the country to act as an arbitrator in the internal leadership contest. Three surveys were conducted to determine the winner among the final two contenders to lead the party: Congressman Porfirio Muñoz Ledo, probably the longest-serving and oldest active politician in the country, and congressman Mario Delgado, politically linked to Foreign Minister, Marcelo Ebrard, an important adviser to President López Obrador. In the last and apparently definitive survey, Delgado won with 58.6% in his favor and 41.4% in favor of Muñoz Ledo. Congressman Muñoz Ledo did not accept his defeat, so the political thermometer is expected to remain at a high temperature for the time being.
