MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican president-elect Enrique Pena Nieto yesterday pledged to prioritize energy, labour and tax reforms and said he hopes to strike deals with opponents to help push some changes through Congress even before he takes office in December.
Pena Nieto won the election on Sunday with about 38 percent of the vote and a margin of around 6 percentage points over his nearest rival, returning his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to power after 12 years in opposition.
But he won fewer votes than expected and it is still unclear how the parties will stack up in Congress.
Incomplete results suggested the PRI could struggle to capture a working majority, leaving it reliant on other parties to pursue its reform agenda.
“The (reforms) are all in the same order of priority, but which goes first will depend on financial and political conditions,” he told reporters, referring to labour, energy and fiscal reforms.
He said his campaign chief Luis Videgaray would form part of his government team. Videgaray is well regarded by investors and seen as a possible choice for finance minister.
Promising to reinvigorate the economy and reduce rampant drug violence, the telegenic 45-year-old Pena Nieto will take office in December for a six-year term as president.
His election marked a dramatic return to power for the PRI, which dominated Mexican politics for most of the 20th century, at times ruthlessly.
He has promised to lift economic growth to about 6 per cent a year, create jobs and draw the heat out of a drug war that has killed more than 55,000 people since late 2006.
His main reform proposals include allowing more private investment in Mexico’s state-run oil industry.
