Presidential candidate of the ruling Morena party Claudia Sheinbaum waves while arriving to the first presidential debate, at the facilities of the National Electoral Institute (INE), in Mexico City, Mexico, April 7, 2024. REUTERS/Quetzalli Nicte-Ha
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican voters took measure of their presidential hopefuls on Sunday night at a feisty first debate, with the two leading candidates both pledging to make history as the Latin American nation's first woman president.
In the inaugural televised debate ahead of June's election, ruling party frontrunner Claudia Sheinbaum stressed her experience and successes as the former mayor of the Mexican capital, while main opposition hopeful and former Senator Xochitl Galvez touted her humble origins and derided the scholarly Sheinbaum as an "ice lady" who lacks charisma.
Both hope to succeed popular outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, founder of the leftist National Regeneration Movement (MORENA). By law, he is barred from seeking re-election.
"The people of Mexico want us to continue advancing with the transformation," said Sheinbaum, 61, in a reference to how Lopez Obrador has for years described his mission.
Sheinbaum, an acclaimed scientist before she entered politics, argued Mexico is "blooming" with robust economic growth thanks in part to repeated government hikes to the mininum wage.
She also evoked Lopez Obrador's skepticism of profit-maximizing businesses, panning services delivered through private companies as too often prone to corruption.
Galvez, also 61, argued she can better relate to everyday Mexicans due to her impoverished upbringing. She also embraced high-tech solutions, including blockchain-protected credit cards for subsidized medications, as well as her support for robotics, artificial intelligence and helping young people learn English.
Her attacks on Sheinbaum often turned personal.
"You're no AMLO. You don't even have his charisma," she said at one point, using the outgoing president's moniker.
"You're a cold woman with no heart."
Galvez, a businesswoman, represents a right-left collection of parties that once dominated Mexican politics.
After Galvez asserted that the family of Sheinbaum, who would also be Mexico's first president of Jewish heritage, held assets in tax havens, Sheinbaum hit back: "How can you believe a liar?"
For months, Sheinbaum has maintained a dominant lead in polling ahead of the June 2 vote, though public opinion surveys in Mexico in recent elections have a mixed record for accuracy.
A survey last month published by newspaper Reforma showed Sheinbaum leading with 58% support, while Galvez trailed with 34%.
A third candidate also shared the stage on Sunday, Jorge Alvarez Maynez, a 38-year-old ex-state legislator from the centrist Citizen Movement party.
While insisting he was not part Mexico's discredited "old politics" and pitching a fresh third option for unsatisfied voters, he was often overshadowed by his better-known rivals.
(Reporting by David Alire Garcia; Additional reporting by Stephen Eisenhammer, Ana Isabel Martinez and Stefanie Eschenbacher; Editing by Stephen Coates)
