Mexico City’s Opposition: Losing Ground Ahead of 2027 Elections?
The political opposition to Morena in Mexico City (CDMX) has played a discreet role throughout 2025 and so far in 2026, failing to capitalize on key social issues that have caused public discontent. This lack of prominence comes just a year before the 2027 midterm elections, raising questions about their ability to act as a political counterweight.
A Disconnected Opposition: The Experts’ View
According to Artemisa Montes Sylvan, Executive Director of the Mexican Crisis Observatory, the opposition is struggling to regain the ground it lost in the 2024 elections. “What happened with the Franciscan Refuge shows what is increasingly evident, the exhaustion of Morena’s governments in Mexico City,” Montes Sylvan told Reporte Índigo.
It’s worth remembering that on January 7, the Mexico City government removed over 900 dogs from the Franciscan Refuge in the Cuajimalpa borough, citing a judicial order. However, this action has sparked widespread protests against the CDMX government, with accusations of an underlying real estate conflict and claims that the supposedly rescued animals are living in poor conditions.
Despite this and other pressing issues like gentrification, exacerbated by the organization of the FIFA World Cup, the opposition has failed to issue strong calls to action or take decisive steps. Montes Sylvan attributes this to a fundamental disconnect with the citizenry.
“What is being seen is that finally they are beginning to have the same interests and are constituted as part of a political class that is not understanding the environment, does not know how to read the citizenry because they continue with the old models of political mobilization,” she explained.
This lack of connection, Montes Sylvan argues, stems from the opposition’s excessive focus on winning elections, leading them to lose touch with the public. “They have not been able to consolidate a real capacity for dialogue with the citizenry; this political pulse turned them into an opposition too worried about winning elections, and this led them to lose contact with the citizenry, so this model of political operation that guarantees me to win elections to have resources, and to maintain that political class of the party itself is already exhausted,” she detailed.
Morena’s Dominance and the Opposition’s Retreat
Currently, opposition parties govern five of CDMX’s 16 boroughs: Benito Juárez, Coyoacán, Cuajimalpa, and Miguel Hidalgo, all led by the National Action Party (PAN) or its affiliates, such as Giovani Gutiérrez in Coyoacán. Cuauhtémoc is also held by the opposition, with Mayor Alessandra Rojo de la Vega representing the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
However, before the 2024 local and federal elections, the opposition governed nine boroughs as part of a coalition. Following the electoral setback, the alliance fractured, and its constituent parties have since refused to reunite for future elections.
Furthermore, Morena and its allies-the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM), the Labor Party (PT), and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD)-currently hold a qualified majority in the Mexico City Congress.
Montes Sylvan suggests that the PAN, as the main opposition party and second political force in CDMX, is reverting to the role it played during 20 years of PRD governments in the capital: an antagonist with limited room for maneuver. She identifies Alessandra Rojo de la Vega and Mauricio Tabe Echartea (Miguel Hidalgo) as the most visible opposition spokespersons, who have consistently voiced their opinions on national and city political issues and questioned authorities.
2027 Elections: A Missed Opportunity?
The electoral political reform announced for 2025 presents both an opportunity and a threat for the opposition at national and local levels, potentially opening avenues for dialogue with citizens, according to Montes Sylvan.
“If they take it as an opportunity, they can use it as a platform for dialogue, for political debate to attract citizens, listen to what citizens propose, and also as a learning process of what electoral experience in Mexico has been like from the 90s onwards, and see how they can build an environment beyond the electoral model we have,” she affirmed.
However, the specialist notes that as of now, the opposition’s ambitions for 2027 do not extend beyond retaining the boroughs they currently govern. “The opposition could have three or four boroughs in 2027, maintaining those they currently govern; there is no margin for them to win more,” she concluded.
The lack of a cohesive strategy, coupled with a perceived inability to connect with the everyday concerns of Mexico City’s residents, paints a challenging picture for the opposition as the 2027 elections draw nearer. Despite Morena’s vulnerabilities, the opposition’s struggle to present a compelling alternative continues to be a defining feature of Mexico City’s political landscape.
