Mexican president vows to slash his own salary
July 16, 2018
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has vowed to slim down Mexico's bloated government budget by taking a massive pay cut when he takes over as president in December.
"What we want is for the budget to reach everybody," he told reporters on Sunday.
He said he would take home 108,000 pesos per month (around $5,700, €4,900) – around 40 percent of current President Enrique Pena Nieto's salary of 270,000 pesos per month.
Left-wing Lopez Obrador, who is also known as AMLO, says he wanted to reduce his salary even further, but decided against it so as not to breed resentment among future Cabinet members who often leave high-paying jobs to serve as ministers.
Fighting perks and corruption
He is determined, however, that no public official will take home more than the president in future. Perks such as chauffeurs, bodyguards and private medical insurance for high-level officials are also to be curbed.
Read more: New Mexican president Lopez Obrador promises oil sector clean-up
AMLO also wants to tackle corruption by forcing public officials to disclose their assets and making corruption a serious offense. On Transparency International's 2017 Corruption Index, Mexico languishes at 135th place, with 180 countries on the list.
AMLO and his Morena party garnered 53 percent of the vote in the July 1 elections. He is the first left-wing Mexican president in decades. He won on a platform that focused on fighting poverty, corruption and violence.
ng/kms (AP, dpa)