The foreign press was harsher than the Mexican press in the verdict on what happened on Saturday in the Zócalo. “The ‘Generation Z rebellion’ in Mexico City was not only orchestrated against the popular Claudia Sheinbaum by high-society Mexican oligarchs and millennial strawberries, but also included anarcho-fascist demonstrations,” tweeted journalist Max Blumenthal, editor of the digital medium The Grayzone. Writer Ryan Grim, reporter for Drop Sitewas also lapidary: “A Generation Z protester in Mexico who is extremely convincing. Without a doubt, it is a spontaneous youth uprising,” he wrote sardonically while publishing a photograph of Vicente Fox with a t-shirt from the manga One Piece. Only far-right communicators like Alex Jones promoted the destabilizing story, which was of little use. With the noise over and tempers tempered, the balance for the protesters is negative.
To grow in followers or trigger changes, the march of the alleged generation Z had to meet at least three tactical objectives: (1) be peaceful, (2) be authentic and (3) be nourished. A victim of opposition expectations and partisan co-option, he achieved none of the three. A tangle of violence, excess gray hair and poor assistance in relation to its sister, the Pink Tide, condemns the small group to a lack of legitimacy from which it will most likely not be able to return. The series of errors may have dealt a blow to the young bloodsucking vampire’s heart: to his legitimacy.
Firstly, fascist symbols, destruction and confrontations dominated the headlines. They were a nonsense that scares away sympathies. Survey after survey confirms that the use of force discourages popular drag. In the United States, for example, they contributed to the decline of the short-lived Black Lives Matter movement. In general, violence is usually used by certain groups to make a cause and their demands visible, but this particular case already had attention. As an undesired effect, the petition, of little to no significance, was overshadowed by the clashes. In a violent country, the greatest act of rebellion is peace, and the protesters lost the opportunity to score a moral triumph.
Secondly, to score legitimacy points the concentration had to be authentic. On the other hand, independent chronicles attested that the majority of attendees were not young. In a hint of misplaced protagonism, old dissidents and traditional party structures dominated the conversation. The proven digital manipulation and the stench of opportunism permeated the painting. That sense of falsehood usually discourages the independent who seeks genuine freshness. Saturday’s images undermine any credibility that in the future it will be emerging voices that will lead an out-of-tune orchestra from the overture.
Finally, the concentration had to be nurtured to demonstrate with data and not stories that there is widespread and growing discontent in Mexico. For many skeptics, 70 or 80 presidential approval ratings remain illusory. They intended to use the demonstration as proof of discomfort, but their expectations were unfulfilled. To settle any doubt, a Zócalo that was more half empty than half full proved that the opposition did not even manage to tie previous mobilizations called by partisan tentacles. Although Saturday’s numerical disappointment does not automatically imply a loss of followers, it does suggest that the general mood is far from rejection and that, on the other hand, certain niches of protest are dissociated from reality.
In short, the concentration of the so-called generation Z was a flat initiative that failed its tactical objectives of legitimacy. The mobilization was used to construct the story of an alleged youth awakening, but the lack of originality of the demands and their overlap with the agenda of the Pink Tide diminished spontaneity. The movement, which with a high probability will have a short life, made visible, with many contradictions, the protest against insecurity – incubated by the PRI and the PAN – but relegated to the background the demands of the generation of hopelessness and anxiety worldwide. Although in Mexico this group demands less than in other countries for policies such as Youth Building the Future, the reintroduction of the minimum wage, social security for delivery workers, scholarships in high schools and universities and the recent expansion of housing, it continues to be vulnerable to global phenomena such as structural inequality and the reconversion of work. What the right undervalues or despises is up to the left to listen to.
Certainly, Morena should not be arrogant, but neither should she be crouched nor self-conscious. Today it has a comfortable majority against ineffective rivals that it not only encounters in the usual spaces, but also in the families that preach far-right freedom such as the Salinas Pliego and the Krauze, more and more ideologizing and partisan. The left in Mexico, with results and legitimacy, contained what the governments of Nepal, Peru or Madagascar could not. Due to inflated expectations, the boomerang of public opinion today punishes the protesters, perhaps with just reason. The barrage that was salivating with destabilization was tamed, but the guard must remain at the top to serve those below more and better. The shouts and hats are tempered, the demanding calm returns.