Although several morenistas who occupy key spaces in the Executive and Legislative Power raised their hands to seek the candidacy of their party for the presidency of the country in 2024, the now leader of the Board of Directors in the Chamber of Deputies, Sergio Gutiérrez Luna, points out that at “this moment” he is not interested in being part of that contest.
“No, I am definitely focused on the Chamber of Deputies at the moment. I would like to continue serving my party, serving my country, where I will be most useful ”, answered the Veracruz deputy on whether he would like to be a presidential candidate in three years.
The politician has held various positions in Morena, as a representative of this party in the electoral bodies of the State of Mexico, Baja California and in the National Electoral Institute (INE); in the latter – on several occasions – he confronted the directors about the salary they earn or the decisions they made.
So now he says that if there are reports to the INE, they will be done “with respect and with the proper direction.” Regarding the salaries of the directors that are higher than what President Andrés Manuel López Obrador gets, he mentioned that everyone should be “made aware”, as he emphasized that it is a constitutional obligation to have a lower salary than the president.
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“What we have is to try to make everyone aware that it is a constitutional obligation, that it is there for a reason, because the constituent approved it and because social reality demands it. It is not an invention of Morena. It is being aware that there can be no congruence with opulent public salaries against sectors that have deficiencies ”, he declares to Forbes Mexico.
Before military in Morena, the president of the Board of Directors was private secretary of a federal deputy and legal advisor in the Tax Administration Services (SAT) in 1998; later he worked in the government of the PAN member Guillermo Padrés, but, he says, he was never part of the PAN.
From his office in San Lázaro, the politician considers that the political reform that his party wants to promote should consider reducing the financing of political parties and “improving” some electoral institutions.
“I believe that it is necessary to rescue the processes and institutions that the electoral system has and that have worked, but there are others that can be improved, and it can be improved in this route of reconciling certainty in elections with less spending,” he emphasizes .
How do you receive the Presidency of the Board of Directors? I mean if she received it strengthened with earrings
I think those who were before, in the previous legislature, did a good job. Now we have another challenge; there is another integration in the totality of the deputies and the deputies. It is a different section, because it is the last part of a six-year term and I believe that the presidency has the challenge of being the axis that can lead the agreements that are generated in the parliamentary groups so that from the Board of Directors and the Presidency can go through all these agreements.
What are the earrings you are finding?
We had a pending that we removed the second session that refers to the Law of Revocation of the Mandate and the Law of Political Trial. (Now) we are going to concentrate – for the rest of the period – on the issue of the Economic Package and on the issue of the initiative that the president (López Obrador) has announced, which he will send and which has to do with a reform to the electricity sector .
How exactly are you building these agreements with the opposition parties?
You have to communicate to listen to us. In the communication and in the tone, the encounters are given more easily. The disagreements, I am trying to make them the minimum or that they do not exist; Obviously, in the diversity or plurality of opinions of the various fractions, since not everything will coincide; however, we bet that the coincidences are the most and the divergences the least.
Last week there was a confrontation in the Plenary, how will it be done to avoid this type of confrontation? I am talking about the case of Deputy Margarita Zavala, are they going to build an agreement?
Sometimes the debates are fierce. We are in a parliament, where it is about talking. I have called on all colleagues to have respect as much as possible. It is valid to point out, question, challenge, defend a position, but as we moderate the tone, it is to the extent that driving here will go well.
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Will they come to a civility agreement or something? or with what is there?
There’s no need. With the leadership of the presidency, with the regulatory framework that we have: the Regulations of the Chamber of Deputies and the Organic Law of the General Congress. That is enough.
You have been president of the Board of Directors for two weeks now, what have been the challenges you have faced?
The biggest challenge is conducting the Plenary. Driving forces us to have an impartial attitude. I think that so far we have achieved it, because the legitimacy of the presidency lies in the trust of the colleagues and that trust only occurs if everyone perceives, feels and realizes that we are acting appropriately in our role as referee to conduct the sessions. .
You have spoken that democracy is austere and it has also been mentioned about an electoral reform. What should this reform have from your perspective?
The issue of austerity has to do with the social reality of a country like Mexico obliges and demands that the organs of the State be austere. There can be no niches where there is opulence that contrasts with social reality.
We have been promoting that so much money is not spent for political parties. In the last legislature we promoted two reforms to reduce the financing of political parties by half and we have indicated that -in our opinion- the INE could be more austere, they could optimize processes, it could not be so expensive; we have pointed it out.
I believe that the processes and institutions that the electoral system has and that have worked must be rescued, they must be safeguarded, but there are others that can be improved, and it can be improved in this route of reconciling certainty in the elections with less spending .
Have the differences with the INE been settled?
I had an institutional talk with the president of the INE, Lorenzo Córdova, that is my obligation. I celebrated the meeting, celebrated that we have talked and that we have communication. That is my obligation, this is the role that I have now and I am going to fulfill it. If there are institutional signs, they will be with respect and with the appropriate direction.
Would you like to be a presidential candidate?
No, I am definitely focused on the Chamber of Deputies at the moment. I would like to continue serving my party, serving my country, where it is most useful, I will be.
Do you always see yourself close to Morena?
It is the only party that I have been a member of in my life. I came to Morena in 2017. Morena was born in 2015, I arrived two years later and I started from the bottom: I was Morena’s representative at the Electoral Institute of the State of Mexico in the election of teacher Delfina Gómez.
* This note was originally published on September 28, 2021.
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