What the Budget Fight Tells Us about the PRI

From Leo Zuckermann:

My colleague Ignacio Marván hit the nail on the head: the approval of the 2010 budget has signified the beginning of the congressional government in Mexico. From Congress, particularly in the Chamber of Deputies, the PRI will try to govern the country. On this occasion they gave a lot of money to local governments, which is where the PRI has its principal power base. In the future, the PRI will continue strengthening the power of the legislative branch and of the state governments to the detriment of the executive branch, as one of the steps to return to Los Pinos in 2012. If the achieve this objective, well then they will have the presidency in their power. If they don’t, well they will have already weakened the executive; they’ll be able to continue governing from Congress and the local governments, as they do now.