Mexico's PAN faces debate on how to wield power
MEXICO CITY (AP) -- After 61 years as a lonely outpost of the opposition,
on
Sunday the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, held its first national
convention while in power -- with doubts about whether it really is in
power.
Old habits die hard: The party -- known for its stiff-necked positions
on issues
like abortion, religion or women's rights -- still feels a lot like the
opposition, even
though it now holds the presidency and a growing number of governorships.
President Vicente Fox, an able media operator, has spent so much time
distancing himself from the PAN that when he addressed the convention Sunday,
he almost had to remind his colleagues he was a member of their party.
"I fully share your values," Fox told 6,000 delegates gathered in the western
city
of Guadalajara. "I reaffirm my membership in the PAN," Fox said. "I wear
the
(party) emblem firmly on my sleeve."
But just before taking office December 1, Fox had said, "I will be governing,
not
the PAN."
And just two days before the convention opened Saturday, PAN legislators
voted
against Fox's proposal to allow Zapatista rebel leader Subcomandante Marcos
to
speak on the floor of congress.
"Neither Fox nor Marcos orders congress around," said PAN legislative leader
Felipe Calderon, who said the rebel's appearance would violate congress'
newfound dignity and independence.
Mexico was ruled for the previous 71 years by a monolithic ruling party,
the
PRI. Between 1929 and 2000, when Fox became the first opposition candidate
ever to win the presidency in Mexico, PRI presidents basically told party
legislators what to do, and Congress was a rubber stamp.
The changes -- a ruling party that doesn't hold a majority in congress,
and
doesn't always agree with its own president -- are positive, national party
leader
Felipe Bravo Mena told the convention.
"It's a healthy sign of a democratic relationship, that the PAN's support
for
Vicente Fox does not imply a submission to the presidency," Bravo Mena
said.
Indeed, the party's old guard -- which sternly opposes abortion and birth
control,
takes an old-fashioned view of women's place in society, and has close
ties to
the Roman Catholic Church -- is unlikely to change, despite the occasional
embarrassments they cause Fox.
Founded in 1939 and still dominated by many of the same prominent families
that
started it, the party appeals to religious, middle-class Mexicans fed up
with
crime, corruption and big government.
While the party's new national executive council, to be elected Sunday,
is likely
to include Fox, it may leave out many of his key followers.
And while most PAN delegates expressed approval of Fox's first three months
in
office, the distance may become more evident.
Fox is apparently relying on PAN votes to get his controversial tax reform
bill
through congress, but the unpopular plan to impose sales tax on food and
medicine is likely to cost the party dearly in future elections.
But in Mexico's newly shifting political landscape, the PAN is not the
only party
going through changes. On the vote that finally allowed the leftist rebels
to
address congress, the former ruling party, the PRI, openly split its votes.
In words seldom heard in a PRI congressional caucus, congressional leader
Beatriz Paredes reportedly told her legislators before the Thursday vote,
"Gentlemen, you are free to follow your conscience in deciding your vote.
It is in
your hands."
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.