Mexico right, left parties strike alliance for 2018 election

MEXICO CITY – Mexico’s main conservative party and a center-left party struck an alliance Tuesday to run a joint candidate in the 2018 presidential race, though so far they’re not in agreement on what their coalition should be called.

The conservative National Action Party, or PAN, is calling it the Citizen’s Front of Mexico, while the Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, says it’s the Broad Democratic Front.

“We are united to end corruption. … We are united to end violence,” PAN leader Ricardo Anaya said.

Both parties are hoping to unseat the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party next year. Former two-time PRD candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is also a formidable contender as the standard-bearer of his upstart Morena party.

The alliance could further erode the ideological underpinnings of the PRD, which has lost support to Morena and moved toward the center.

“We know we don’t have the same ideas, but we pursue the same goals,” PRD leader Alejandra Barrales said.

The smaller Citizens’ Movement party also signed on to the alliance.