National Regeneration Movement

The National Regeneration Movement (), commonly referred to by its syllabic abbreviation Morena (), is a major left-wing political party in Mexico, often described as oscillating between social democracy and populism. As of 2023, it is the largest political party in Mexico by number of members; it has been the ruling party since 2018, and it won a second term in the 2024 general election.

The party's name also alludes to Mexico's Catholic national patroness: the Virgin of Guadalupe, known as ''La Morena''.

Established as a non-profit organization in 2011 and registered as a political party in 2014, it was led by three-time presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador until 12 December 2017, when he registered as a candidate for the party's presidential nomination and was succeeded by Yeidckol Polevnsky.

For the 2018 general election, it formed the coalition '' Juntos Haremos Historia'' (Together We Will Make History) with the left-wing Labor Party and the Christian conservative Social Encounter Party. As its candidate, López Obrador won the presidency with 53% of the popular vote and the party won a majority in both the Senate and Chamber of Deputies. MORENA was part of the Juntos Hacemos Historia alliance for the 2021 legislative election. In the 2024 election, Morena's presidential candidate, Claudia Sheinbaum, was elected in a landslide victory and became Mexico's first female president when she succeeded López Obrador on 1 October 2024.

History

Background

In the 2006 presidential election, the popular former Head of Government of Mexico City, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, was nominated by the left-wing Coalition for the Good of All, which comprised the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), the Labor Party (PT), and Convergence (CON). After losing the election, López Obrador alleged election fraud. Although the electoral courts dismissed his claims, he declared himself the "legitimate president".

During the LX Legislature, the left-wing parties formed the legislative bloc Broad Progressive Front to promote López Obrador's political platform. However, during the legislative session, many PRD legislators began to distance themselves from López Obrador, who was increasingly perceived as radical due to his "legitimate presidency" claims. In the 2008 PRD leadership election, Jesús Ortega emerged victorious over López Obrador's ally Alejandro Encinas for the party presidency.

In 2008, López Obrador transformed his "legitimate presidency" into the "National Movement in Defense of Oil, Heritage, and the Popular Economy" in response to a proposed energy reform. The movement mobilized 200,000 activists, successfully blocking the reform, which aimed to privatize the state-owned petroleum company, Pemex.

By the 2009 legislative election, numerous López Obrador allies were sidelined by party leadership, which removed them from candidacies and diminished their influence in the LXI Legislature. In the 2010 local elections, the PRD, along with the PT and CON, formed alliances with the right-wing National Action Party (PAN) in several key gubernatorial races to counter the Institutional Revolutionary Party's (PRI) growing influence, further separating López Obrador and his allies from the party.

Civil association (2011–2012)

Drawing from his successful mobilization of activists during the "National Movement in Defense of Oil, Heritage, and the Popular Economy," López Obrador believed it was feasible to establish a citizen network operating without party affiliations, motivated solely by support for his candidacy. On 10 January 2011, he called for the formation of a social and political movement dedicated to defending the vote in preparation for the upcoming general election, naming it the National Regeneration Movement (Morena).

Morena aimed to establish "Voter Defense Committees" in 66,000 electoral sections across Mexico to monitor for potential election fraud. This initiative became one of the largest social mobilizations in the country's history, rivaled only by the PRI's mobilizations during the mid-20th century. The movement was officially founded as a civil association on 2 October 2011, with López Obrador claiming that the movement had attracted nearly four million supporters within nine months.

For the 2012 general election, López Obrador was once again nominated by the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), Labor Party (PT), and Citizens' Movement (MC) in a coalition called Progressive Movement. On election day, López Obrador's surveillance plan was successful, with Morena achieving total coverage across all 300 electoral districts. Despite these efforts, López Obrador once again finished in second place.

After the election, growing disagreements between López Obrador and the PRD leadership over the future of Morena led to López Obrador's departure from the PRD on 9 September 2012. The PRD leadership had considered forming a legislative bloc with the PAN, a move López Obrador criticized, later accusing the party of having "betrayed the people" by aligning with both the PAN and later with Peña Nieto's PRI.

Foundation as a political party (2012–2017)

On 20 November 2012, Morena's first National Congress took place, where it formally started its transition from a civil association to a political party. During the congress, attendees approved the statutes and action plan for the party, elected 300 councillors to form the Morena National Council, and selected Martí Batres as president of the National Executive Committee.

A 2012 poll indicated that a majority of the public held a negative view of MORENA's establishment as a political party. While some PRD politicians, such as Ricardo Monreal, supported López Obrador's decision, describing it as a "divorce of convenience" to avoid further polarization in the country, others, like Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, criticized him for forming a new political party, claiming it further splintered the Mexican left.

On 7 January 2014, Batres submitted documents to the National Electoral Institute (INE) for registration as a political party. The INE officially approved MORENA on 10 July, allowing it to receive federal funds and participate in the 2015 legislative election.

The 2015 election marked the first time MORENA participated as an official political party. It won 35 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, which included 14 district seats and 21 proportional representation seats.

2018 general election

In the lead-up to the 2018 general election, speculation emerged that Mexico's four left-wing parties—Morena, the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), the Labor Party (PT), and Citizens' Movement (MC)—might form a coalition. However, Andrés Manuel López Obrador dismissed this possibility due to political differences, especially after the 2017 State of Mexico gubernatorial election, where PRD and MC candidates chose to continue their campaigns rather than support Morena's candidate.

The PT, however, aligned with Morena after its candidate in the State of Mexico withdrew in favor of Morena's. Seeking an alliance, it was formalized in October 2017 at the PT’s National Congress, where party leader Alberto Anaya was re-elected for another six-year term. By late November 2017, discussions began with the right-wing Christian-conservative Social Encounter Party (PES), whose president, Hugo Eric Flores Cervantes, stated: "We don't negotiate with the PRI; we have two options: to go alone or with Morena." In December 2017, the alliance was solidified under the name '' Juntos Haremos Historia'' ("Together We Will Make History"), with López Obrador as the coalition's presidential nominee.

López Obrador won the election in a landslide with 53% of the popular vote. The party won 55 seats in the Senate, 156 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, and the governorships of Mexico City, Chiapas, Tabasco, and Veracruz.

Before and after the 2018 election, many PRD politicians, including incumbent mayors and legislators, left the party to join Morena, asserting that it represented a true leftist movement. Notably, key PRD founder Ifigenia Martínez y Hernández was among those who made the switch to Morena.

2018–present

In early 2019, nine deputies from the PRD left the party, joined López Obrador's Morena-led government coalition, and gave the government a two-thirds majority, allowing for the passage of constitutional amendments.

In the 2021 legislative election, as part of '' Juntos Hacemos Historia'', Morena won an additional seven seats in the Chamber of Deputies while the coalition as a whole lost seats. The ruling coalition maintained a simple majority but failed to secure the two-thirds congressional supermajority.

Ideology

MORENA describes itself as a democratic left-wing party that supports ethnic, religious, cultural, and sexual diversity, respect for human rights, and environmental care. It describes itself as an opponent of the neoliberal economic policies that Mexico began adopting in the 1980s. MORENA states that a new economic model is needed after the failures of neoliberalism in Mexico, which has resulted in increased corruption and inequality. The party supports "development through private and social business, promoting market competition, but exercising State responsibility in the strategic activities which the Constitution states" and proposes "a model that strengthens the inner market, fair wages; a model that promotes syndical freedom and democracy, where the State doesn't intervene in the inner affairs of the trade organizations".

The party opposes the privatization of Pemex and the granting of lands to foreign mining companies who "devastate the lands, pay no taxes and harm the environment". MORENA also declares itself in favor of improving conditions for the Indigenous peoples of Mexico and implementing the 1996 San Andrés Accords, which were signed by the EZLN and representatives of the government but remained unenforced by President Ernesto Zedillo. The party says it is against the monopolization of the mass media, especially television, by Televisa and TV Azteca, which in 2018 owned 90% of Mexican television.

On social issues, the party's platform embraces a progressive agenda in favor of women's rights and the LGBT community in Mexico, supporting causes such as same-sex marriage and the decriminalization of abortion at the national level. Andrés Manuel López Obrador became the first Mexican president-elect to include the LGBT community in an election victory speech. Almost a year later, on 17 May 2019, López Obrador officially decreed the "National Day against Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia" in Mexico.

The party advocates an alternative security strategy to the war on drugs, which was implemented in the country during the presidency of Felipe Calderón (2006–2012) and which they oppose, arguing that it is a "failed" strategy that has only sown "insecurity and instability" among Mexicans. Among other things, they advocate the legalization of drugs, such as marijuana, considering that such a proposal would make it possible to find "mechanisms for peace and the reconstruction of the social fabric".

Contrary to other parties of the left, MORENA has not sought to reduce inequality by increasing taxes on the wealthy. Instead, the party has focused on reducing the pay gap between lower-level employees and high-level government workers salaries, such as politicians and judges, through austerity measures. The party announced support for a plan by López Obrador to cut salaries of higher-ranking public officials (including the president), lay off up to 70 percent of non-unionized federal workers, and reduce spending by cracking down on corruption and tax fraud. As Article 94 of the Mexican Constitution prohibits reducing the salary of judges at any time during their appointment to maintain judicial independence, judges on the Supreme Court took a 25% pay cut starting in 2019.

Pragmatism

Various outlets have described MORENA as a big tent party, "not in the strict sense a political party, but an alliance of diverse movements and political actors, whose main reference is its founder and presidential candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador". Due to López Obrador's pragmatism, some critics have claimed that MORENA is subject to López Obrador's decisions rather than having a more consistent ideology as a party.

Introducing elections to the judiciary

In September 2024, then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador pushed through a major constitutional reform deliberately intended to make Mexico’s judiciary more responsive to popular opinion and political influences. Specifically, the recent reform introduces the direct election of all Mexican justices, magistrates, and judges at the federal and state level, reduces the number of Supreme Court justices from 11 to 9, reduces justices’ tenure from 15 to 12 years, establishes a new Judicial Disciplinary Tribunal, and creates an administrative agency to manage the judiciary's resources. However, critics argue that this reform will seriously undermine the independence of the judiciary, encourage corruption, and erode checks and balances in Mexico’s seemingly resurgent single-party political system. It resulted in major protests and a nationwide strike by judicial sector personnel. Mexican civil society organizations also responded with alarm and its possible implications for Mexican democracy. Even normally reserved U.S. and Canadian diplomats issued public criticisms of the reform, causing López Obrador to declare an informal “pause” on diplomatic relations with both countries due to their alleged interference in Mexican domestic affairs.  

Structure

Presidents

National Executive Committee

Publication

Morena publishes and distributes the newspaper ''Regeneración'' ; its name is taken from the publication of the same name that was clandestinely run by the Flores Magón brothers, journalists critical of the Porfirian regime prior to the Mexican Revolution. Morena defines its news organization as: "a tool of struggle, an agitator of ideas, an organizer of citizens, and a promoter of the revolution of consciences."

Election results

Presidential elections

Legislative elections

Chamber of Deputies

Senate elections

See also

* Yo Soy 132
* 2012 Mexican elections protests
* #1DMX – 2012 presidential inauguration civil unrest
* Mexican Indignados Movement
* Big tent
* List of political parties in Mexico
* History of democracy in Mexico
* Claudia Sheinbaum

Notes

References

External links

Official website (López Obrador)

{{Authority control

2011 establishments in Mexico
Centre-left parties in South America
Left-wing parties in Mexico
Opposition to neoliberalism
Political parties established in 2011
Political parties in Mexico
São Paulo Forum
Social democratic parties in South America