Zedillo-PAN Split Threatens Talks

MEXICO CITY — President Ernesto Zedillo’s relations with Mexico’s main opposition party hit a new low Monday as he attacked its decision to abandon democracy talks in protest of alleged vote-rigging in Yucatan.

Zedillo said the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, had provided no proof to back up fraud claims and suggested he would not give in to its demand that Yucatan Gov.-elect Victor Cervera Pacheco be prevented from taking office.

“I am being asked, in other words, to practice a selective democracy, and that is unacceptable. By definition, it is anti-democratic,” Zedillo said in an interview with television news channel Telenoticias, which is a partner of the Reuters news agency.

PAN leaders said late Sunday that they were pulling out of the democracy talks on which Zedillo has staked his political reputation and they threatened a campaign of civil disobedience. The PAN has been seen as a virtual ally of the government, but relations turned sour over the last month.

Zedillo’s democracy talks are doomed to failure if the PAN does not come back on board, but he had few soothing words for the opposition party Monday.