NATIONAL ANTI-REELECTIONIST PARTY: FOUNDATION, IDEOLOGY - HISTORY - 2025

The National Anti-Reelection Party (PNA) was a political organization founded by Francisco I. Madero that dominated the Mexican scene during the first half of the 20th century. The PNA's ideology was based on social and economic liberalism and opposed presidential reelection.

On May 22, 1909, the politician and businessman Francisco Ignacio Madero González created the PNA to confront the reelectionist and authoritarian government of General Porfirio Díaz. The so-called Porfiriato held the presidency of Mexico for 30 continuous years until the PNA came to power in 1911.

Francisco I. Madero

Among the main founders and leaders who broke into Mexican politics since the founding of the PNA are Francisco Madero and Emilio Vázquez Gómez.

Likewise, Pedro Lascuráin Paredes, José Pino Suárez, José Vasconcelos, Alfredo Robles Domínguez and Luis Cabrera Lobato, among others, stand out.

Foundation

The immediate political antecedent of the National Anti-reelection Party (PNA) was the Anti-reelectionist Club of Mexico, which was created a few days before. At the initiative of Francisco I. Madero and other prominent liberal politicians and men of letters, on May 22, 1909 the PNA was founded.

The main objective of the PNA was to fight against the Porfiriato, a long and ancient period of government whose mandate spanned 30 years.

General Porfirio Díaz had been occupying the presidency of the Mexican nation since 1877. His decadent and stagnant government encountered resistance in wide sectors of the country's life.

Madero and the PNA set out to conquer the presidency of Mexico, assuming the defense of democracy under the slogan: "Effective suffrage, no re-election."

The party began its political campaign proclaiming the strict observance of the Mexican Constitution, as well as respect for individual liberties and guarantees and municipal liberty.

The newly created National Anti-reelection Party decided to launch Francisco I. Madero as presidential candidate, after the so-called Tivoli convention.

He was accompanied to the position of vice president by the lawyer and politician Francisco Vázquez Gómez. Immediately, the PNA rallied with Mexican voters and managed to gain a high level of popularity.

Imprisonment and start of the Mexican Revolution

Given the signs of sympathy that Madero had been gaining throughout the Mexican territory, the government of Porfirio Díaz decided to arrest Madero in San Luis de Potosí.

In the middle of the electoral campaign for the 1910 elections, the young politician was prosecuted. He was accused of instigating an outbreak of rebellion and outraging the authorities.

However, in November 1910 Madero was released and managed to escape to Texas, United States. There he wrote the Plan of San Luis, which is considered the trigger for the Mexican Revolution. The armed uprising to overthrow Porfirio Díaz began on November 20, 1910.

The fatigue with the reelectionist continuity of General Porfirio Díaz was felt throughout the country. Díaz managed to stay in power for three decades thanks to electoral fraud and violence against his political opponents.

Madero returned to Mexico to participate in the armed struggle against the government, which led to the capture of Ciudad Juárez in May 1911.

Finding himself without strength, Porfirio Díaz resigned from the presidency; this allowed Madero to participate in the elections held in October 1911 and to be elected president of Mexico.

Madero assassination

Madero was victorious in the extraordinary elections for the presidency of Mexico and on November 6, 1911, he took office. The Mexican Revolution was in full swing.

President Madero was in office for a very short time, because on February 22, 1913, he was betrayed and assassinated along with Vice President José María Pino Suárez during the coup (Decena Tragica), led by General Victoriano Huerta.

The political and social reforms promised by Madero could not be carried out due to the opposition of some of his main followers; Nor did he have enough time in power to materialize them. Madero was not forgiven for his separation from the PNA to found the Progressive Constitutional Party.

Although he was able to overcome some insurrections in 1912, several rebellions broke out in the south and north of the country, led by Emiliano Zapata and Pascual Orozco.

The army commander, General Victoriano Huerta, ordered his imprisonment and forced Madero to resign. Then he executed it.

Ideology

The National Anti-reelection Party based its political and economic thinking on social liberalism, an ideological current also called progressive liberalism or social liberalism). The PNA promoted liberal ideas and opposed on principle the reelection or continuity of General Porfirio Díaz.

Socioliberalism considers that the most important thing is the individual and material development of man as a consequence of his social interaction.

It advocates that both social development and social welfare are perfectly compatible with the freedom of individuals, as opposed to real socialism or communism.

The ethics of Mexican social liberalism was opposed to the authoritarianism embodied in the Porfirio Díaz government. This ideology was based on the ideas of John Stuart Mill and the rationalism of Kant and Voltaire.

Politically, it promoted the participation of men in the decision-making process, through democracy (social democracy).

On the economic plane, he proposed social regulation and partial State intervention in the economy. In this way, it was guaranteed that the social market economy would be totally and genuinely free, in addition to avoiding the formation of monopolies.

Important characters

The National Anti-Reelection Party dominated the political scene during the first half of the 20th century. From its founding until 1952 - when it was dissolved - it remained in power and many of its founding leaders remained on the national political scene.

In addition to Francisco I. Madero, the following characters stood out in the leadership of the PNA:

Emilio Vázquez Gómez (1860 - 1933)

Co-founder of the PNA. He was a candidate for Vice President of the Republic in 1910 and a former Minister of Foreign Relations.

Pedro Lascuráin Paredes (1856 - 1952)

He was provisional president of Mexico in 1913 for 45 minutes after Madero's resignation.

José Vasconcelos (1882 - 1959)

Educator, writer, lawyer, philosopher and politician. He was a presidential candidate for the PNA.

José Pino Suárez (1869 - 1913)

Lawyer and journalist, vice president of Mexico between 1911 and 1913.

Alfredo Robles Domínguez (1876 - 1928)

Member of the Anti-reelection Center of Mexico.

Patricio Leyva

Member of the Anti-reelection Center of Mexico.

Luis Cabrera Lobato (1876 - 1954)

Lawyer, politician and writer

Aquiles Serdán Alatriste and María del Carmen Serdán Alatriste

Brothers and revolutionaries who fought alongside Madero in Puebla.

References

1. The Tivoli convention. Retrieved on April 9, 2018 from revistabicentenario.com.mx
2. National Anti-reelection Party. Consulted from esacademic.com
3. National Anti-reelection Party. Consulted of wiki2.org
4. Political parties of Mexico. Consulted of es.wikipedia.org
5. Biography of Pedro Lascuráin. Consulted of Buscabiografias.com
6. Anti-reelectionism. Consulted from educalingo.com
7. Madero and the Anti-reelectionist and Constitutional Progressive parties of Chantal López and Omar Cortés. Consulted of antorcha.net
8. The Anti-reelectionist Party is organized in Mexico City at the initiative of Madero and Vázquez Gómez. Consulted of memoriapoliticademexico.org