PRI was punished because of opaque governments: Monroy

Carolina Monroy del Mazo, interim chairwoman of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), believes that her party has not lost its traditional voters, and that it was just punished by citizens upset by opaque state governments that have not done enough to improve safety.

In an interview with EL UNIVERSAL, Monroy said the party has reached the conclusion that even if it won in 262 of 400 municipalities, it lost governorships because of governments perceived by society as distant.

Monroy became interim national leader of the PRI last Tuesday, following the resignation of Manlio Fabio Beltrones Rivera. The National Political Council of the party now has 60 days to ratify her on the position or call an election of a new president.

Meanwhile Monroy, who is also a congresswoman, will organize an internal debate to determine the way forward for the party and, above all, what to do with those who harm it.

She added that president Enrique Peña Nieto's proposal to allow same-sex marriages was not the reason behind the party's defeat in seven states, because that is “superficial” and added that her party was the one that got more votes on June 5 elections nonetheless.

Monroy said that the party should probably be better at explaining to society how will reforms benefit the country.