Acosta: Referendum Means Little

Guadalupe Acosta touched on another basic problem with tomorrow's energy referendum in an interview yesterday: the provisional PRD leader admitted that it's meaningless. Unlike California, where the people use referenda to make a wide variety of decisions, in Mexico City it's just for show. As Acosta said, it's nothing more than a way of familiarize itself with the opinion of the people.  Since there is no shortage of opinion polling about the subject in Mexico, the consultation --conceived as a way to learn about Mexico's opinion-- is redundant, and totally unnecessary. 

I wonder if Acosta's comments were meant to lower the temper of the post-consultation, post-reform climate. Since it's a virtual certainty that the Mexico City referendum will result in an implicit rejection of Calderón's reform proposal, and since it's a virtual certainty that legislation resembling the Calderón plan will end up passing, it's interesting that Acosta was so clear in rejecting the significance of the referendum. He also spoke positively of a Thursday meeting with PRI President Beatriz Paredes and PAN President Germán Martínez that dealt with the reform. This all makes you think that the PRD, seeing the writing on the wall, is looking for a way to save some face before the inevitable reform. If so, this would be a welcome switch toward pragmatism, although the more extremist reaction within the party will surely differ from Acosta's.