Mexico's once-mighty party struggles

Madrazo's poor showing in two national debates, his faltering in the polls, and his authoritarian management style, has created major rifts within the PRI, say analysts. In recent weeks, three prominent PRI Senators – Manuel Bartlett, Oscar Cantón, and Genaro Borrego Estrada – have all come out and endorsed other candidates.

But even Mr. Borrego, a 30-year PRI veteran and former party president, who endorsed Calderón last week and quit the party, says the PRI's malaise goes beyond Madrazo.

"We are an unpopular party and I am sure we will not triumph on July 2, but it's not all because of Madrazo," says Borrego. "It's a problem within the party, and Madrazo has aggravated it." The PRI, says Borrego, has been unable to define itself in the period of multiparty politics. "We need radical reform and a new definition of what the party should be."

Formed in the 1920s after the Mexican Revolution, the PRI historically focused on maintaining stability and remaining in power – not on ideology. It was a party founded on beliefs diverse enough to produce left-leaning President Lazaro Cardenas who nationalized the oil industry in the 1930s and conservative President Miguel Aleman, who filled his cabinet with businessmen in the late 1940s.

Since being voted out of power six years ago, the PRI has come to define itself mainly as what it is not. "We are not the intolerant right-wing or radical like the PAN, and we are also not populist and violent like the leftists in the PRD," says Mr. Olavarrieta. "We are in the center. We represent prudence, maturity, and responsibility."

But such a definition is not one to get voters up and cheering. "Madrazo says he will bring us millions of new jobs – but how? What is their platform?" asks Alberto Barajas, a security guard in Mexico City. "I understand they are not the other parties. But who are they?"

Over its long rule, the PRI's reputation for corruption and cronyism left it with an accumulated image problem. "[Corruption] comes with holding office here, and none of the parties can claim the mantle of totally clean government," says Mr. Guerra. "But the perception is that the PRI is the worst."

In addition, while the PRI does have many young members, its faithful are often called dinosaurs.

The future of the party, says Borrego, will depend on how well it can reinvent itself. "The day after elections, there will be a battle between the various factions: the pragmatists who want to restructure, the idealists who want a whole new party, and the nostalgics who want the old party," he predicts.

"What is needed is a fresh reformer to jump on the locomotive and steer it away from the old way of doing politics," adds Guerra. "But there will be a struggle before this can happen."

• Ms. Harman is Latin America correspondent for the Monitor and USA Today.

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