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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | June 2006 
World Cup Eclipsing Mexico Election
 S. Lynne Walker - Copley News Service
| | In a nation weary of presidential campaigns, the talk long ago turned to soccer. |
Mexico City – Who won Mexico's presidential debate? Who cares.
It's time for the World Cup, the Super Bowl of soccer, and Mexico's team – ranked sixth internationally – is a strong contender.
This is a country swooning with soccer fever, a country where fervent fans are already donning the team's green jerseys, buying cerveza and tuning the rabbit ears on their TV sets. These fans – almost every man and boy in the country, not to mention more than a few women – can't wait for Mexico's first match on Sunday against the tough-playing team from Iran.
Why focus so much attention on the selección, as Mexico's team is known, instead of the presidential election?
“Ooooof! We candidates would like to see the World Cup, too,” laughed Roberto Madrazo, who is running for president on the Institutional Revolutionary Party ticket.
“People are really going to be distracted by the World Cup,” he said in an interview yesterday. “We are setting up political rallies, huge get-togethers, to watch football.”
On Tuesday night, Madrazo delivered his political message in Mexico's final presidential debate. He emphasized his law-and-order platform and appealed to rivals to abandon their negative campaigns and focus on Mexico's problems.
Conservative candidate Felipe Calderón, from President Vicente Fox's National Action Party, was the favorite, according to two telephone polls and opinions published in the nation's leading newspapers. Some 44 percent of those polled after the debate by the Mexico City newspaper Reforma said Calderón was the victor.
Leftist candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador ranked second in the survey, with 30 percent saying he was the winner. Madrazo ranked a distant third, with 11 percent.
The debate was a decisive event in a political race where Calderon and Lopez Obrador are struggling to overcome a statistical tie.
“Calderón has spinned himself all the way to Los Pinos (the Mexican White House),” political analyst Federico Estevez said, “and Lopez Obrador has spun out.”
But in a nation weary of presidential campaigns, the talk long ago turned to soccer.
“We are already into transition where we're just going to ignore electoral politics and focus on what's really important, which is sports,” Estevez said.
That's certainly how Ricardo Flores sees it.
He didn't watch the debate. But he will be glued to the television Sunday.
“People are more interested in soccer than in politics,” Flores, 35, said yesterday as he washed a car on a quiet Mexico City street. “The candidates blame each other for everything. People aren't interested in their fights anymore. They're interested in soccer.”
Mexico's presidential candidates are trying to catch the wave.
Calderon met with the soccer team last month before the players left for Germany, where the World Cup will be held. As TV cameras rolled, Calderon put on a team jersey, gave the players a pep talk and even made an awkward attempt to juggle a soccer ball.
A few days later, López Obrador interrupted a live TV interview to send his own message to the players.
“I wish them the best and remind them that for everything in life, you just need drive,” said López Obrador, who is actually a baseball fan.
The election and soccer are now so closely linked that a national magazine, Cambio, dedicated its entire June edition to sports and politics.
On the cover, computer sleight of hand put the three presidential candidates in soccer uniforms, while Fox is dressed as the goalkeeper and the head of the Federal Electoral Institute is outfitted as a referee.
With two quarter-final games scheduled the night before the July 2 election, even Fox's office is worried the World Cup will dampen voter enthusiasm.
Presidential spokesman Rubén Aguilar asked Mexicans to maintain “a measure of civility” and community spirit once the games begin.
Hilda González doubts that will occur.
“A great number of people are just going to pay attention to the soccer team,” said González, a physical therapist. “It embarrasses me to say this, but the majority of Mexicans are not interested in politics.”
Still, Calderón is trying to score the deciding goal with Mexico's voters.
Yesterday morning, his campaign workers were in Mexico City's streets hanging posters that look like soccer scoreboards.
“Debate,” the posters proclaimed. “Calderon: 2. Others: 0. |
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