First test for Mexico's new president? Marathon daily press conferences

First test for Mexico's new president? Marathon daily press conferences

By Cassandra Garrison

There could be a live mariachi band, clips from old Mexican movies, or the photo of a journalist being scolded for their coverage: the only sure thing with outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's daily press conference is that it will be long – often upwards of three hours.

Known as the mananera, meaning roughly of the morning, this potent mix of factual updates and political theatrics has become a cornerstone of Lopez Obrador's government, whose 60%-plus approval ratings are the envy of many Western leaders.

The president sets the day's news agenda, controls crises and takes down opponents - all while most folks are having breakfast.

Now, it will fall to incoming President Claudia Sheinbaum - who takes power on Tuesday - to fill his shoes at the lectern, a task political watchers say could be a formidable challenge given her far less spontaneous style. The mananera has become such a part of Mexican daily life that Sheinbaum can't scrap it, but she can't just copy her mentor's format either without being slammed as a puppet.

"It's not an easy act to follow," said Ryan Berg, director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The struggles over the mananera are a microcosm of Sheinbaum's battle to harness her predecessor's popularity while making her own mark. She inherits the morning press conference, which made its debut under Lopez Obrador six years ago, at a crucial moment.

Despite her mentor's popularity, Mexico is struggling with a violent security crisis, a lagging currency, a ballooning budget deficit and tensions with its biggest trade partners over a controversial judicial overhaul.

"She may try to maintain this very high level of popularity, like Lopez Obrador did, and repress her technocratic policy side, but that doesn't necessarily suit her," Berg said.

Sheinbaum and her team are fully aware of the challenge, those close to her say, and have debated how to maintain the effectiveness of the daily event while making it more "her". An afternoon slot was briefly considered, but dismissed for having less influence on the news cycle.

The news conferences will now be "much shorter, more or less an hour," according to a source with knowledge of her plans. Her first mananera will be on Wednesday, Oct 2., the day after her inauguration.

Sheinbaum will also use the opportunities to highlight the participation of women in Mexico's history while also echoing Lopez Obrador's emphasis on the "recovery of the historical memory" of the country, the source said.

Lopez Obrador, for example, has used the platform to call publicly on Spain to apologize to Mexico for abuses committed during the Spanish conquest 500 years ago.

By the end of his presidency, he will have hosted about 1,500 mananeras. Supporters say it was his time to shine as a man of the people, connecting with Mexicans unfiltered and uninterrupted.

Sheinbaum, a climate scientist with a measured and monotone cadence, would probably struggle to effuse at length in the manner of her mentor, often cracking jokes and pivoting the message to friendlier terrain when he was confronted with tougher questions.

"I imagine her a little less loose, much more stiff, and with messages that she has practiced very well," said Mariano Sanchez Talanquer, a researcher at the Center for International Studies at El Colegio de Mexico.

There will likely be far fewer gimmicks, too, experts said. Sheinbaum's personal style does not lend itself to some mananera staples such as "Who is who in the lies of the week?," presented in Lopez Obrador's era as a dismantling of "fake news" stories that are unfavorable to the government.

She also may not have the same knack for coining iconic phrases: there are dolls of the current president sold in Mexico that repeat his slogans including "I have other facts" and his controversial "hugs not bullets" security policy.

Still, political strategist Rafael Valenzuela said Sheinbaum will benefit from the strong political brand that Lopez Obrador built and will want to keep it.

"She doesn't just want to lose the symbol (of the mananera). There are powerful symbols that they already have and they are the ones that people voted for," Valenzuela said.

Sheinbaum's fierce defense of Lopez Obrador's policies and vow to carry on his biggest pledges such as reducing poverty and ending corruption helped, in part, fuel her landslide election victory. In August, she shared the results of a poll in which participants voted to continue the daily conferences.

"She doesn't have the same reflexes. She doesn't have the same charisma," said campaign and political messaging strategist Sergio Torres.

"She has a big challenge to make her space in her own style, but with the same weight as Lopez Obrador." (This story has been refiled to fix the spelling of Mariano Sanchez Talanquer's first name in paragraph 15)