ABSTRACT
The overwhelming victory of the Mexican opposition leader Andrés Manuel López Obrador in the 2018 presidential election gave him an absolute majority in both chambers of Congress and control of most subnational congresses. With this historical support and with a populist discourse, he has begun a process that seeks to take control of all public institutions, including the judiciary and even the autonomous constitutional bodies. The Congress is adapting to the new political circumstances and has initiated a deinstitutionalization process and is now playing a secondary role in the policy-making process. During the first year of government, both chambers have been submissive to the executive. From being an active legislature, it is increasingly playing a role as a marginal legislature, but that has been a consequence not only of the strong executive leadership, or the unified government but also of the institutional weakness suffered in the recent legislatures: amateurism, partisan capture, and corruption.
