Politics: A Year of both Progress and Inaction
The first year of the LXIII Congress (2015-2018) concluded with considerably fewer achievements than had initially been hoped for as the administration of President Enrique Peña Nieto has apparently lost the ability it demonstrated during its first two years in office to promote its own legislative agenda. As a result, both chambers failed to step up during the final days of the winter-spring session and left pending many matters of enormous importance for the future of the country.
As the administration slides deeper into what appear to be a series of reflex responses to public pressure rather than anything resembling a coherent strategy for furthering and shoring up the legislative legacy of the Peña administration, it has undercut its own bargaining position by trying to push improvised proposals on Congress without first engaging in any serious analysis, much less prior consultations with lawmakers. Such weaknesses have been painfully apparent as the government has struggled to come up with responses to issues about which citizens are most concerned, such as security and the fight against corruption.
Despite the general foot dragging, late last month Congress managed to pass a federal law on transparency and access to public information, a law on state and local government fiscal discipline it had been discussing for more than a year, and a bill on special economic zones. It also made progress on pending appointments, although the ones left pending included a new independent member of the Pemex Board of Directors.
What is unclear is whether a special session of Congress can be called in the coming days to pass the slew of legislation needed to implement the National Anti-corruption System and a reform of the country’s police system, or whether the partisan pressures building ahead of the upcoming elections will push any consideration of the pending laws until sometime after the first weeks of June.
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