The caballada expands: Roberto Gil Zuarth registers for PAN leadership succession

The past weekend and week saw the additional registration for contenders for the PAN presidency of Senator Blanca Judith Díaz and Francisco Ramírez Acuña, former governor of Jalisco (2001-2006), briefly minister of the interior in Calderón's cabinet, and now a federal deputy. 


Yet it was the rather surprise announcement by Roberto Gil Zuarth yesterday that he would also seek the nomination that caused the greatest stir.  Roberto Gil Zuarth is considered quite a hot-shot in PAN and a quick riser - and he is barely 33 years old. Notably, former interior minister Fernando Gómez Mont, under which Gil served, accompanied him for his registration and declared he would consider returning to PAN, should Gil become its next president. Gómez Mont, to recall, loudly renounced from PAN over the electoral alliances with PRD, and then from the administration of Felipe Calderón this July. He has held a very low profile ever since. 


Until now, Senator Gustavo Madero and Ramírez Acuña have been considered the front runners, yet Gil appears closer to Calderón than any of them. 


There is one problem:  According to party rules, the party's national councilors, who will elect the president Dec 4-5, all need to have been members of at least five years of the party, and Gil only has about 2.5 years of membership in the PAN. His supporters retort that the rule only apply for councilors, and not the party president, and as such does not disqualify Gil. Yet  this is pretty disingenuous. Yes, the statutes may only stipulate the national councilors need five years of party membership and say nothing about the president, but a more plausible reading of this is simply that it would be even more unthinkable for a president to have less than five years militancy - after all, what is the logic of demanding it of the PAN council but not the president? Yet the time when PAN was a party that strictly adhered to the internal party rules or even obeyed the spirit of the statues, has long passed. To cite but the most obvious, Calderón himself blatantly intervened to  have his designates Germán Martínez and then César Nava appointed as party presidents.


In any event, should there be any doubt as to Calderón's preferences, Germán Martínez (2007-2009 PAN president) declared that Roberto Gil would represent calderonismo as well as post-calderonismo, as the tenure of head of PAN's excecutive committe would extend to 2013, after the presidential elections.  Ramírez Acuña and particularly Madero until now appeared the strongest contenders; now, many may place their money rather on Gil.