Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard during this afternoon's press conference. Photo Cuartoscuro.

The Foreign Minister of Mexico, Marcelo Ebrard, announced on Tuesday that on June 12 he will request his resignation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to compete for the presidential candidacy of the ruling National Regeneration Movement (Morena) party.

"I have also resolved and so I transmit them, request and present my resignation to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as of Monday, June 12 early in the morning. Next week. With the purpose of dedicating myself fully, with joy and resolution, to defend the project headed by our president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador throughout the Mexican Republic," Ebrard said at a press conference broadcast on his networks.

"I am excited to participate in this great Morena movement, I am excited and proud to be part of the fourth transformation (Q4) and I am also excited to act with congruence with respect to what we have proposed. That is why I am separating from office and I am going to meet with citizens," the senior official stressed.

The politician emphasized that the election of the presidential candidate within Morena must be a process marked by "fairness, transparency and clear rules." He was also happy with the proposals made since last December regarding the nomination process for the candidate of the ruling party. "I see clearly that the proposals presented since last December, separating ourselves from public officials, exposing the proposals of each one and that the survey is broad, transparent and verifiable [...], will be reflected in the unitary proposal," he said.

Define the process to nominate the Morena candidate

This same Tuesday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador reiterated after a dinner with the main candidates of Morena, that he will not intervene to choose a candidate in the next elections scheduled for June 2024.

The president explained that 29 people participated in the dinner, among which were the main pretenders to the candidacy of the next elections. Apart from Ebrard, the presence of the head of the Government of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum; the Secretary of the Interior (Segob), Adán Augusto López Hernández; and Senator Ricardo Monreal.

For his part, the national president of Morena, Mario Delgado, announced this same day that next Sunday the party will define the process to choose the candidate who will represent the Together We Make History alliance, also integrated by the Labor Party and the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM).

Delgado said that "one of the fundamental requirements" for the candidates is the written commitment to continue deepening López Obrador's path. "Unity is built among all, it is not just the responsibility of the party, it is the responsibility of all the participants and of course we will require their unwavering commitment of loyalty to the transformation project," he said.

López Obrador already stressed on Monday that "there will be no dedazo." The 'dedazo' is a practice that has predominated in Mexican politics and that implies that the political leader chooses "by hand", in a solitary way, the candidates who are initially running for the presidency, although later it expanded to other positions.

(With information from RT en Español)