Mexico: Presidency: Mexico definitely has a new President, conservative Felipe Calderón, will he form a unity govt?

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After two months of postelection tumult in Mexico, Felipe Calderón is now officially the president-elect. But even though he won the vote (barely), he now needs to win legitimacy. Otherwise, the torn fabric of Mexico's young democracy may further fray.

Mr. Calderón, a Harvard-educated conservative who was once energy minister, must show the 3 out of 5 Mexicans who did not vote for him on July 2 that he can represent their interests.

North America > Mexico

He can do that with a unity cabinet made up of different party leaders - and with policies that reflect both poor and rich, north and south. He already backs a program that rewards rural parents with welfare if they keep their children in school.

Without such bridge building in a polarized nation, his ruling National Action Party may find it difficult to muster the popular support needed to quell the ongoing civil unrest promoted by his main opponent, the leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has called for nonviolent revolution ("To hell with the institutions," he declared Tuesday) rather than accept his narrow loss.

What cabinet position, what state ministry, could Calderón possibly offer to the Democratic Revolutionary Party's leader and almost-President? The latter has shown he is a force for disorder. How can he be absorbed into a unity govt. Good luck, President Calderón!

-- Politicarp

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