Mexico's PRD and PAN Mull Unorthodox Alliance for Next Election

Groundbreaking political alliances are brewing in the run-up to Mexico's 2018 presidential elections. According to Reuters, a broad coalition is being proposed by Mexico's social democratic Democratic Revolutionary Party, known as the PRD, and the country's conservative opposition National Action Party, known as the PAN.

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The objective of the coalition? To sweep out the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, a political party that has reigned over Mexican politics almost uninterrupted for decades. Added incentive for the alliance is to railroad the presidential bid of leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who broke with the PRD following his unsuccessful 2012 presidential campaign against President Enrique Peña Nieto to form a new party, the National Regeneration Movement, known by its Spanish acronym Morena. 

Only in 2000 did PAN ascend to the presidency, breaking a long cycle of PRI victories. However, in 2012, Enrique Pena Nieto won Mexico's presidential elections, restoring PRI's dominance.

A coalition between a party that represents the big business class, PAN, and a withering leftist force, PRD, that's seen a slew of its members flock to Lopez Obrador's camp, is unorthodox to say the least considering the conflicting ideologies advocated by the two groups. Still, PAN leader Ricardo Anaya emphasized that the greater goal of the alliance is “to get rid of the PRI, for certain, and to give Mexico a coalition government, an honest government delivering results for the benefit of the people.”

Anaya added that both parties have “discussed the suitability of rallying a broad opposition alliance for the 2018 elections.”

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Other opposition parties, as well as social leaders and academics are also being encouraged to unify behind the coalition that plans to present a transformative public program for Latin America's second-biggest economy and the second most dangerous place on earth.

Meanwhile, Lopez Obrador, the former mayor of Mexico City who ran for president twice before breaking ranks with PRD to form his own party, Morena, posted a video on social media lambasting the PAN-PRD coalition. 

Lopez Obrador, also known in Mexico by his initials AMLO, called the coming together of the two groups as being an alliance of sycophants and a “mafia of power.” The Financial Times also reported that he questioned the timing of the proposed coalition as being solely for the sake of winning the presidency next year.