Party of the Democratic Revolution

The Partido de la Revolución Democrática ( Party of the Democratic Revolution, PRD) is one of the major parties in Mexico. It is considered a moderate left.

It was founded on 5 May 1989 in Mexico City, including Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano of, Heberto Castillo, Gilberto Rincón Gallardo, Porfirio Muñoz Ledo and other left-wing politicians. It emerged from various opposition groups and initiatives intellectuals. The PRD was designated as a party of 6 July. On this day in 1988 was the Mexican presidential election held; as a candidate of a left alliances Cárdenas had won the election alleged, on the basis of electoral fraud, however, was President Carlos Salinas de Gortari. Cárdenas and some followers had previously left the ruling state party PRI.

In the presidential elections on July 2, 2000 Cárdenas received as a PRD candidate 16.6% of the vote. Many leftist voters had voted tactically for the conservative candidate Vicente Fox, and thus ended the more than 70 -year rule of the PRI. In the simultaneous election to the Senate, the PRD participated in the Alliance for Mexico, which won 15 of 128 seats in the Senate. For the election of the Mexican Chamber of Deputies, the party won 17.6 % of the vote and 95 of 500 seats.

The PRD is a particularly strong presence in the central and southern Mexico. She won the gubernatorial elections in the states of Guerrero, Chiapas, Michoacan, Zacatecas, Baja California Sur, as well as in the capital district in which they are governed, since there 1997, the direct election was introduced. In the local elections in 2003, the PRD won the Capital District in 13 of 16 constituencies.

The former head of the municipality of Mexico City, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in the presidential election in 2006 was the candidate of the party. He was considered one of the favorites, but lost very nearly his rival Felipe Calderón ( PAN). López Obrador and the PRD throw Calderón against electoral fraud and do not recognize his victory. Instead, López Obrador called legitimate president of Mexico.

In the south, the base of the PRD worked together for a long time with the Zapatistas and supported the building autonomous administrative and supply structures. In recent times, however, it is increasingly come to inconsistencies, because the leadership of the PRD economic enhancing reforms the government not criticize in principle, but merely tries socially cushion. Also increasingly former PRI functionaries are after deselection of the PRI at the various levels defected to the PRD, so now the local power structures that were built by the PRI, are partly continued by PRD officials.

With its commitment to justice and openness in society and as a leftmost of the three major parties in Mexico, however, it still reaches a broad electorate.