Where the right goes wrong

In Mexico, “conservative” has become a slur.

“I do worry about us being embarrassed for being on the right,” said Margarita Zavala sipping coffee in a secluded veranda behind her elegant offices in Mexico’s posh Polanco neighbourhood.

She has worn many hats during her time in politics: An activist for Mexico’s historically right-wing National Action Party (PAN), first lady during the presidency of Felipe Calderón (2006-2012), and an independent presidential candidate in 2017 after she split from the party. Today, she is a federal congresswoman nominally under the PAN, but no longer as an active member.

Yet, even now, Zavala struggles to describe herself as right-wing. “I was part of the group within the PAN that pushed the party towards the centre. Felipe [as she always refers to her husband] always took care to avoid calling us right-wing.”

If one was to choose the most important cultural victory wrought by former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his still ascendant left-wing party, Morena, it could arguably be what he calls “the moral defeat” of the right. To be called a right-winger or a conservative in Mexico is almost considered a slur—even within the ranks of the PAN itself.

“If you say you’re right-wing now, they say you’re a fascist,” Raúl Torres, a PAN congressman who represents Mexicans living abroad, told The Mexico Political Economist. “But just look at the US election, it shows you that there are silent majorities.”

In Mexico they are very silent indeed. Apart from Zavala and Torres, The Mexico Political Economist spoke to politicians, activists, and political analysts who would normally be considered right-wing. When pressed, they did eventually confess to some synonymous euphemism.