Andrés Manuel López Obrador has become Mexico’s first left-wing president in around 70 years and has swept to power on the back of some sweeping electoral promises regarding tackling corruption, poverty and crime. He has certainly made an instant headline by proclaiming he intends to take a 60% salary cut and stating that no other public official will earn any more than him. If this happens he will only earn around £4,310 ($5,700) a month – just over a third of what the UK Prime Minister Theresa May earns (before the generous expenses and other benefits). However, to put this into perspective the Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong earns around £1.5M a year!
Mexican President Lopez Obrador giving his
“Together we will Make History” pre-election speech
Sara_Escobar/Shutterstock
With Transparency International ranking Mexico as the joint 135th most corrupt country in the world and having just had the highest murder rate on record in 2017, he will have his hands full. Hopefully, a change in political ideology will work, and if not well its hard to see things getting much worse.
The first big problem here will face is the migrant caravan which is causing considerable ire with his nearest counterpart Donald Trump. How he handles this may very well define his presidency.
Header image Diego Grandi/ Shutterstock
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