Morena (political party)

The National Regeneration Movement (Spanish: Movimiento Regeneración Nacional), commonly referred to by its syllabic abbreviation Morena (Spanish: [moˈɾena]), is a center-left to left-wing political party in Mexico. Founded in 2011 by Andrés Manuel López Obrador as a civil association and registered as a political party in 2014, it emerged from López Obrador's break with the Party of the Democratic Revolution. Since its formation, Morena has grown rapidly to become the dominant political force in the country.

Morena's platform combines elements of left-wing populism, progressivism, and social democracy. It opposes neoliberal economic policies and supports expanded social welfare programs, increased public investment in infrastructure, and state control over strategic industries such as energy, oil, and electricity. Drawing substantial backing from working-class voters, rural communities, the urban poor, and regions historically underserved by federal investment, Morena positions itself as an alternative to the long-dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the conservative National Action Party (PAN).

As of 2025, Morena holds the presidency, majorities in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, and most governorships, making it the largest political party in Mexico by representation. It also holds significant influence over the federal judiciary, with many elected judges having ties to the party. As of 2026, with 11,050,758 members, it is also the largest political party in the history of Mexico. The party's dominance has reshaped Mexico's political landscape, ushering in what some analysts describe as a new era of hegemony.

History

Early political background

Following the 2006 presidential election, in which former Head of Government of Mexico City Andrés Manuel López Obrador alleged election fraud after narrowly losing to Felipe Calderón, the left-wing parties that supported López Obrador's candidacy formed the legislative bloc Broad Progressive Front during the LX Legislature to promote his political platform and counteract Calderón's administration. However, during the legislative session, many legislators from the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), the bloc's largest party, began to distance themselves from López Obrador, who was increasingly perceived as radical due to his election fraud claims. In the 2008 PRD leadership election, Jesús Ortega, from the party's "Nueva Izquierda" (lit. 'New Left') faction, defeated López Obrador ally Alejandro Encinas Rodríguez for the party presidency. "Nueva Izquierda" favored cooperation with other political forces, marking a shift away from López Obrador's confrontational strategy.

In 2008, Calderón's administration introduced an energy reform that López Obrador and his followers argued was a step toward privatizing the state-owned petroleum company, Pemex. In response, he organized the "Movimiento Nacional en Defensa del Petróleo, el Patrimonio y la Economía Popular" (lit. 'National Movement in Defense of Oil, Heritage, and the Popular Economy'), which mobilized supporters in rallies and sit-ins to oppose the measures. The reform was ultimately approved with support from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the National Action Party (PAN), and factions of PRD legislators. Due to this, in the 2009 legislative elections, López Obrador only endorsed candidates from the Labor Party (PT), Convergence (CON), or his faction of the PRD.

Following the 2009 legislative elections, internal shifts within the PT and CON led both parties to participate in 2010 electoral coalitions with the PRD and the PAN in several key gubernatorial contests aimed at curbing the PRI's resurgence, a strategy that further distanced López Obrador and his supporters from the PRD's leadership.

Founding and early years (2011–2017)

Civil association

On 10 January 2011, López Obrador, drawing from his successful mobilization of activists during the "National Movement in Defense of Oil, Heritage, and the Popular Economy," announced the creation of a new social and political organization aimed at defending the vote ahead of the 2012 general election, naming it the National Regeneration Movement (Morena). Morena was officially founded as a civil association on 2 October 2011, with the goal of creating "Voter Defense Committees" in 66,000 electoral sections across Mexico to monitor for potential election fraud. According to López Obrador, the movement attracted nearly four million supporters within its first nine months.

For the 2012 general election, López Obrador was once again nominated by the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), Labor Party (PT), and Citizens' Movement (MC) in a coalition called the Progressive Movement. On election day, López Obrador's surveillance plan was successful, with Morena achieving total coverage across all 300 electoral districts. Despite these efforts, López Obrador once again finished in second place, losing to the PRI's Enrique Peña Nieto.

After the election, growing disagreements between López Obrador and the PRD leadership over the future of Morena led to López Obrador's departure from the PRD on 9 September 2012. The PRD leadership had considered forming a legislative bloc with the PAN, a move López Obrador criticized, later accusing the party of having "betrayed the people" by aligning with both the PAN and later with Peña Nieto's PRI.

Transition to a political party and first elections

On 20 November 2012, Morena's first National Congress took place, where it formally started its transition from a civil association to a political party. During the congress, attendees approved the statutes and action plan for the party, elected 300 councillors to form the Morena National Council, and selected Martí Batres as president of the National Executive Committee. While some PRD politicians, such as Ricardo Monreal, supported López Obrador's decision, describing it as a "divorce of convenience" to avoid further polarization in the country, others, like Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, criticized him, claiming it further splintered the Mexican left. A 2012 poll indicated that a majority of the public held a negative view of Morena's establishment as a political party.

On 7 January 2014, Batres submitted documents to the National Electoral Institute (INE) for registration as a political party. The INE officially approved Morena on 10 July, allowing it to receive federal funds and participate in the 2015 legislative election. In its electoral debut, the party won 35 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, becoming the fifth-largest parliamentary group. In the 2015 Federal District local elections, Morena managed to flip five boroughs from the PRD, marking its emergence as a political force in the Federal District.

Over the following two years, Morena consolidated its organizational structure and positioned itself as an opposition to President Peña Nieto's administration, drawing on public dissatisfaction with the government and the Pact for Mexico reform agenda. In the 2017 State of Mexico gubernatorial election, the Labor Party candidate withdrew in favor of Morena's nominee, who was narrowly defeated by the PRI candidate by a margin of approximately 2.8 percentage points, the party's closest electoral defeat to that date.

Consolidation and the "Fourth Transformation" (2018–present)

In the lead-up to the 2018 general election, López Obrador dismissed this possibility of a grand left-wing coalition, which would have encompassed Morena, the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), the Labor Party (PT), and Citizens' Movement (MC), citing political differences and pointing to the PRD and MC's decisions to continue with their own campaigns rather than withdraw in favor of Morena's candidate during the 2017 State of Mexico gubernatorial election. Instead, a coalition was formed with the PT and the right-wing Christian-conservative Social Encounter Party (PES). The PRD decided to form part of the big-tent Por México al Frente, triggering a mass exodus of its members to Morena, most notably the Izquierda Democrática Nacional (lit. 'National Democratic Left') faction. López Obrador won the presidency with 53 percent of the vote, becoming the first candidate in modern Mexican democratic history to secure an outright majority. Morena and its allies also gained majorities in both chambers of Congress, marking the beginning of what López Obrador termed the "Fourth Transformation" (4T) of public life in Mexico.