Investors Are Right to Take Mexican Election in Stride
But it's important to watch for signs of whether this new regime will move toward the middle or try to cement power.
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexico’s new president. Wonder who he voted for.
Photographer: Alfredo Estrella/AFP/Getty Images
The anti-establishment wave has struck again — this time in Mexico, with the convincing election of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador as Mexico’s new president. Well-signaled by the polls in the run-up to Sunday’s voting, it’s an outcome that, unlike in the past, markets have been relatively sanguine about after an initial phase of worry. And they are likely to prove right as long as the global economy and its financial markets avoid major disruptions.
Described recently by the Financial Times as “a leftist nationalist with a sincere concern for the poor, a seductive message of renewal and a vivid sense of history,” President-Elect Lopez Obrador ran on an anti-establishment platform that promised to fight corruption, increase social spending, revamp state-owned enterprises, enhance national pride, and ensure that the economy delivers prosperity and security to more Mexican citizens. It was a message that — while still populist, nationalist and anti-elitist — was significantly toned down compared to his previous unsuccessful electoral campaigns. And it is one that gained a lot of traction in an age when trust has waned in traditional parties, the establishment and expert opinion.