Felipe Calderón´s first victory as president came just hours into his administration Friday morning when he took advantage of superior tactics by his party´s legislators to recite the oath of office in front of a joint session of Congress.The opposition Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) had vowed to prevent Calderón from being sworn in Friday and its deputies and senators nearly achieved that goal by blocking the main entrances to the Chamber of Deputies congressional hall with chairs and their own bodies.
But legislators from Calderón´s National Action Party (PAN) assembled en masse to seal off the speakers´ area at the front of the Chamber, preventing their opponents from blocking the entrance.
Calderón and former President Vicente Fox were led by members of a special Army unit through halls and rooms under military control behind the Chamber to the back door. Their sudden appearance in the noisy and chaotic Chamber some 15 minutes before their scheduled arrival surprised the legislators, very few of whom were sitting in their assigned places.
Fox and Calderón strode immediately to the main podium, working their way through the crowd of PAN legislators occupying the speakers´ area. The new president recited his oath at 9:46 a.m. almost before the scores of foreign dignitaries in attendance knew what was happening.
PAN legislators were visibly jubilant as Calderón made good on his promise to take the oath in the Chamber of Deputies. Many hugged each other, and some literally danced with joy.
The president´s appearance had seemed unlikely just an hour earlier when the Chamber was filled with shouts, chants, whistles and frequent shoving matches that sometimes led to brief fisticuffs.
Calderón´s success against all odds came as a significant early image boost, especially after his predecessor had yielded twice to disruptions by the PRD - on Sept. 1 when legislators took the Chamber dais to prevent Fox from delivering his State of the Nation Address, and on Sept. 16 when Fox was forced to transfer his Independence Day activities away from the PRD-controlled Mexico City Zócalo.
"The optimum outcome for us has always been for Felipe Calderón to take the oath of office at the speaker´s podium here in the Chamber," said PAN Sen. Gustavo Madero.
"There were other alternatives, but we accomplished the optimum."
It was a triumph of logistics more than politics.
"We prepared for a lot of different scenarios," Madero said. "We always had control of the speakers´ area, and that´s what guaranteed our success."
Once Calderón was able to enter the Chamber and take his place at the podium surrounded by PAN members, PRD legislators had no more tricks up their sleeve and most took their seats as the president recited the oath.
PRD Deputy Ramón Félix Pacheco Llanes credited the PAN´s superior numbers for its success in preventing the PRD from blocking Calderón´s oath of office in the Chamber. Combining senators and deputies, the PAN has 258 legislators to the PRD-Labor-Convergence coalition´s 193.
Despite the failure to stop Calderón´s swearing-in ceremony, Pacheco said the image victory should go to the PRD.
"It was a shameful day for Felipe Calderón because he had to come in through the back door," he said. "That´s what thieves do."
Those outside the PAN-PRD feud see little that´s positive about lawmakers waging pitched physical battle on the floor of Congress.
"It´s clear that the legislators had been trained to take positions of force inside the Chamber," said political analyst and EL UNIVERSAL opinion page editor Rossana Fuentes-Berain. "That demeans the meaning and spirit of what Congress is."
