Mexico City – Mexico’s former ruling party and the small Green Party declared on Monday that they will join forces in support of presidential hopeful Roberto Madrazo for the July elections.
“Building an alliance with the Green Party commits us to making compromises in our electoral platform and to present a socially relevant agenda,” said Mariano Palacios, president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party or PRI.
The PRI ruled Mexico for 72 uninterrupted years and is still the largest party in Congress.
The Greens are the nation’s fourth largest party with 17 seats in the lower house of Congress.
In 2000, the Greens joined the conservative National Action Party in support of President Vicente Fox who defeated the PRI in a historic election victory.
However, on Thursday the Greens said they would not support the National Action Party because it was weak on environmental issues.
The PRI and Greens said Monday that they would also support a joint slate of candidates for the federal congress and city councils that will be chosen next year.
Most polls show the leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the former mayor of Mexico City, as the favorite for the July elections, with Madrazo in second or third place.
