MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico’s former foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Monday he would remain inside the ruling leftist National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), ending weeks of speculation that he could seek the presidency in 2024 with an opposition party.
Ebrard said he had reached an understanding with MORENA’s presidential candidate, former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, after in September he rejected the results of the party’s presidential primaries as riddled with irregularities.
Ebrard had not ruled out the possibility of seeking the presidency with the center-left opposition Citizens’ Movement (MC) party. MC this weekend closed its register of contenders for its presidential candidacy. Ebrard was not among them.
Speaking at a press conference, Ebrard, 64, said he would continue to pursue the presidency in the future, but that he recognized it was no longer viable for next year.
Ebrard, a longtime ally of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, built his reputation as a socially progressive mayor of Mexico City between 2006 and 2012, when he decriminalized abortion and legalized same-sex marriage in the capital.
He was also a key interlocutor for Mexico’s negotiations over trade and immigration with then-U.S. President Donald Trump, and the succeeding Biden administration.
(Reporting by Dave Graham; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
