Presidential candidate Enrique Pena Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) speaks during a press conference on July 2, 2012 in Mexico City, Mexico.
Mexican President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto pledged on Monday to focus on energy, labor and tax reforms and said he hopes to strike deals with opponents to help shepherd changes through Congress before he takes office in December.
Pena Nieto won Sunday’s election with about 38 percent of the vote, good for a lead of about 6 percentage points over his nearest rival, returning his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to power after 12 years in opposition.
But the victory margin was smaller than expected and results suggested the PRI and its Green allies would struggle to win a majority, officials at the electoral authorities told Reuters.
That would leave Pena Nieto reliant on other parties to back his plans to reinvigorate Latin America’s No. 2 economy. Speaking to reporters in Mexico City, the 45-year-old said he was ready to consult with outgoing President Felipe Calderon and bring in policy experts to get work done on the economic reforms and help ease their path through Congress.
His main reform proposals include allowing more private investment in Mexico’s state-run oil industry, overhauling the tax system to improve government revenues and liberalizing the country’s labor laws to encourage job creation.
Calderon’s conservative National Action Party (PAN) had already tried to get similar reforms through Congress over the past six years but the efforts were thwarted by opposition from the PRI, which spent the last 12 years in opposition.
Long regarded as corrupt and authoritarian, the PRI has bounced back under the youthful Pena Nieto, who has vowed to break with the party’s checkered past. He has sought to bring in new blood to the party, and Pena Nieto said his campaign chief, Luis Videgaray, 43, would form part of his government team.
Videgaray is well regarded by investors and seen as a possible choice for finance minister. Pena Nieto has promised to lift economic growth to about 6 percent a year, create jobs and draw the heat out of a war with drug gangs that bogged down Calderon’s administration.
The conflict has killed more than 55,000 people since late 2006.
buenosairesherald.com