Politics Mexico's controversial judicial reform clears first hurdle in Congress

The Mexican Chamber of Deputies has become the first parliamentary chamber to approve President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's controversial judicial reform. After a twelve-hour session, 359 members of the governing party gave the green light for the constitutional amendment, which provides for the direct election of judges by the people. Because demonstrators blocked the parliament, the MPs met in a sports hall.

Controversial selection method

The future selection of federal judges is particularly controversial. According to the government's plans, the head of state, parliament and the Supreme Court are to nominate candidates for the judgeships in equal parts. The ballot papers will clearly show who nominates the judges. López Obrador is very popular in Mexico and his party currently controls the executive and legislative branches. On October 1, he will be succeeded by his political foster daughter Claudia Sheinbaum, who also supports the reform.

Critics of the reform fear that the election of judges by the population could, for example, give the powerful drug cartels, which control large parts of the country and therefore also people's voting behavior, more influence over the judiciary. There is also criticism that the professional agreement of judges could play a lesser role in future and that politics could exert greater influence on the judiciary.

Two-thirds majority required in the Senate

The reform still has to be discussed in the Senate. There, the ruling party Morena is only one vote short of the necessary two-thirds majority after two opposition politicians switched to the government side. The approximately 1,700 federal judges have been on strike against the initiative for two weeks. The Supreme Court joined the strike this week.

The left-wing president wants to have the judicial reform passed before the end of his six-year term of office on September 30. For years, López Obrador has publicly berated the judges who stopped his government's projects due to environmental concerns or criticism of the militarization of internal security, among other things.