Mexican president was thanked with an ode while aboard a low-cost flight to Tepic
Source: Guardian
Tom Phillips in Mexico City
Wed 29 May 2019 12.17 EDT Last modified on Wed 29 May 2019 12.55 EDT
When Andrés Manuel López Obrador put his presidential Boeing up for sale last year and pledged to travel economy class around Mexico, it was part of a budget-slashing populist push to get closer to the people.
On Tuesday at lunchtime, as he flew low-cost to the city of Tepic, Mexico’s leftist president was thanked with an in-flight ode from one starstruck passenger.
“Obrador is a great presidente and will always be able to count on our support, sí señor!” the singer warbled as her leader – best known as simply Amlo – looked on from his emergency exit window seat.
“The people applaud him, they follow and respect him because we don’t want any more corruption,” the passenger, who was named only as Paloma, continued in reference to López Obrador’s pledge to crack down on thieving politicians.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/29/mexico-amlo-airplane-passenger-singing-ode
Viva AMLO!
He made a gesture, not to ingratiate himself with the voters, but because, through NOT indulging in the luxury taken for granted by previous Presidents, he shows regularly he's willing to put himself at risk, and travel like someone who lives in the country, like the citizen he has always been.
Media can try to brand it a self-serving gesture, but media should try to remember it's a gesture which puts him at a disadvantage, depriving himself of a thick layer of security and convenience given all the others automatically.
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