Politics: PAN at the crossroads, seeking better fortunes with a relaunch and a new face, identity, and organizational style
Mexico’s largest opposition political party — the PAN —appears to be realizing that it is in an existential crisis and needs a major shakeup, overhaul, and new identity. The evidence is overwhelming: party membership is down to 200,000, which contrasts with Morena’s campaign for 10 million new affiliates. Opinion polls do not currently favor the PAN, and the party is suffering from a high level of public distrust, in large part due to the poor performance of some of its party leaders and officials while in office.
Thus, the PAN has just set in motion a major facelift, termed a "relaunch", ahead of the 2027 elections. This is being conveyed on a political level by the PAN's seeking to rebuild its identity as a right-wing party. In the eyes of the public, its identity has been eroded not only with the passage of time and the party’s ineffective and bland elected governments, but also by its electoral alliances, first with the PRD and finally with the PRI.
On an organizational level the relaunch is being given expression by an opening up of the party, including by selecting candidates through primary elections instead of top-down leadership decisions. Other aspects of its new organizational functioning could include a transparent, participatory, and democratic internal regime, with a reform of its bylaws and an update of its visual identity, with changes in its logo and slogans. And on the electoral level, the relaunch is being expressed by the party's abandonment of its alliance with the even more discredited PRI.
Can the PAN pull it off? With its poll numbers low, and facing a dynamic Morena that is convinced it has wind in its sails, can the PAN become an attractive alternative, galvanizing active support? In the PAN’s favor is that it is engaged in a major renewal before its PRI and MC competitors, with a more or less defined roadmap on how to go about doing so. The PAN is wagering that it will be able to harness the current and future discontent with Morena. Recent developments in Latin America with successful right-leaning electoral victories — in Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador— indicate this could be a possibility, and the PAN could have a crack at some electoral success. Nevertheless, the obstacles it faces and its internal inertia should not be underestimated.
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