Tens of thousands protest against the Mexican president and the ruling party in a “March for Democracy”

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Tens of thousands of pink-clad protesters marched through cities in Mexico and beyond on Sunday in what they called a “march for democracy” targeting the country’s ruling party ahead of the country’s June 2 elections.

Demonstrations called by Mexican opposition parties called for free and fair elections in the Latin American country and attacked corruption on the same day he was the presidential front-runner. Claudia Sheinbaum He is registered as a candidate for the ruling party Morena. Nearly 90,000 people turned out to protest against the leader, according to government figures.

Sheinbaum is largely seen as a continuity candidate for popular Mexican populist leader Andrés Manuel López Obrador. He is beloved by many voters who say he ousted the country's elite parties from power in 2018 and represents the working class.

But the 70-year-old president is also accused of taking steps that endanger the country's democracy. Last year the leader Reduce funding for The country's electoral agency, the National Electoral Institute, and weak oversight of campaign spending, something the head of the National Electoral Institute said “could poison democracy itself.” The demonstrators used the agency's color, pink, as a symbol.

López Obrador also attacked journalists in press conferences that lasted for hours She often attacked Mexico's judiciary He claimed that the judges were part of a conservative conspiracy against his administration.

In Mexico City on Sunday, thousands of people dressed in pink flocked to the city's main square chanting “Get Lopez out!” Others carried banners reading, “The power of the people is greater than those in power.”

Among the opposition organizations that participated in the march were the National Civic Front, Yes for Mexico, Citizen Power, Mexican Civil Society, UNE Mexico, and United for Mexico.

“Democracy does not solve the problem of water shortages, it does not solve the problem of hunger, it does not solve a lot of things. It does not solve the problem of water shortages, it does not solve the problem of hunger, it does not solve a lot of things,” Enrique de la Madrid Cordero, a prominent politician from the Institutional Revolutionary Party, said in a video posted on social media calling on people to join the protests. They are pretending. But without democracy you cannot solve anything.”

The Institutional Revolutionary Party has held uninterrupted power in Mexico for more than seventy years.

Rallies were held in one hundred cities across the country, and in other cities in the United States and Spain.

However, the president remains very popular and opinion polls indicate that his ally Sheinbaum looks set to easily win the presidency.

Lopez Obrador has repeatedly rejected the protests, telling reporters on Friday that his critics do not care about democracy and are organizing a march to return the corrupt to power.

Following the massive demonstration, the leader continued to attack critics, saying that there would be no electoral fraud in the elections and that he did not interfere in democratic processes.

“It is their democracy… the democracy of the corrupt. What we want is for there to be a democracy for the people. We do not want power without the people. They are the ones establishing an anti-democratic policy by rigging elections.”

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