The sinking of a flagship

摘要

Mexican politics have long been char-acterised by a lack of ideology. The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) managed to rule the country for 72 successive years by adopting a single guiding principle: stay in power. That finally failed when Vicente Fox, from the centre-right National Action Party (PAN) won the presidency in 2000 with the slogan "Change!" But his administration has proved a bit of a disappointment, due largely to a congressional deadlock between the three major parties which has blocked much of the promised change. In elections over the past three years, the pri has performed well, raising party hopes that Mr Fox's six-year term was but an interregnum.