The Mexican Congress has finalized the budget plan for President Claudia Sheinbaum’s second year in office. On Thursday morning, the Chamber of Deputies approved the 2026 Federation Spending Budget, the latest pending economic package proposed by the federal government. The dominant bloc, formed by Morena, PVEM and PT, made last-minute, early-morning cuts to the judiciary, the electoral court, the National Electoral Institute, the Attorney General’s Office and the National Human Rights Commission amounting to 17,788 million pesos. With this cut he was able to stretch the budget to make reallocations within the 10.2 billion pesos approved as total spending for the following year. The redistribution of the almost 18,000 million pesos brought benefits to a few sectors. Education, technology, environment, culture, labor and agriculture, in that order, had the only upward changes, compared to the proposal sent by the president. However, skimping on security resources in the country has dictated the pace since the debate began earlier this week.
The murder of Carlos Manzo, mayor of Uruapan, Michoacán, fueled the opposition. Until the last minute of the debate, the ruling party was reproached for not having enough resources to deal with the country’s insecurity crisis, a priority for the government, the Mexican president claimed in her public speeches. The topic has reignited the debate. Morenists and PRI members engaged in a shoving clash that was one step away from coming to terms.
In the universe of figures relating to the spending package for next year, there are those who are more favoured. The Ministry of Energy allocated 267.4 million pesos, a substantial increase of 86.8% from the previous year, the largest increase in federal spending for next year. At the same time, Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), a major burden on the country’s public coffers, once again takes home a millionaire portfolio of 517.3 million pesos, with an increase of 7.7%. Of this total, 249.8 million pesos are intended for investments. Sheinbaum has bet that it will be the last millionaire outlay for the parastatal body, which remains in the red and represents 46.6% of total spending and 90% of the investment.
Between numbers and cuts in spending by autonomous bodies, deputies approved an increase in salaries. The increase in their annual income was 115,000 pesos. From the first day of 2026 it will go from 1,193 million pesos per year to 1,307 million. As a result, the bonus amount has also changed. It will go from 140,504 pesos to 147,438 pesos. Furthermore, life insurance has been awarded which will represent an outlay of 59,000 pesos for each of the 500 deputies who make up the Chamber of Deputies. All this, despite the fact that the Mexican president read the pamphlet several times to members of the party that brought her to power. “Austerity and honesty, no paraphernalia of power,” he said recently. The president also spoke out against major insurance for medical expenses for high-level officials. Based on the principle of austerity that the ruling party promotes in her speech, she said that no public official, including herself, should have them.
The opposition, in line with these budget adjustments, has questioned the political will to implement the National Security Strategy, the president’s big gamble that called for a handful of constitutional and legal changes and part of the seven planks of his National Development Plan. The Secretariat for Security and Protection of Citizens (SSyPC), led by Omar García Harfuch, suffers a cut of 10.3 million pesos compared to 2025, equal to 18%. The narrative that the National Guard has moved into the hands of the Army – in response to the reduction in security – is at odds with the numbers presented. That uniformed corps has a projected endowment of 23.5 million pesos, 12 billion less than the previous fiscal year. The only increase in this sector fell in Public Order Affairs and Internal Security with an increase of 11,120 million pesos, equal to 17.6% more than in 2025.
Manzo’s assassination was the flag under which PAN and PRI fought, even if only verbally. The clashes, angry threats and distribution of responsibility regarding the insecurity in the country and the execution of the mayor of Uruapan have been constant. “Who killed Carlos Manzo? The government killed him, Morena killed him”, launched Rubén Moreira, parliamentary coordinator of the PRI. The response came from Morenista Arturo Ávila, who accused the opposition of being “scavengers”, for having, according to him, taken political advantage of the crime that has shocked Mexican society.
All in all, the vast majority of Morena, PVEM and PT have sufficient numbers to pass the spending budget and any law or constitutional reform they deem necessary, without needing the consent of the opposition. Of the almost 2,000 reservations or proposed changes to the opinion discussed in almost 24 hours, only 12, those raised by the ruling party, saw the light of day and were approved without obstacles. Ricardo Monreal, Morena’s leader in the Chamber of Deputies, has waged a fierce defense of the last-minute changes that were negotiated at the table of the Finance Ministry led by Édgar Amador, according to pro-government lawmakers. “This is a very careful and professionally prepared budget,” he said. The opinion on the spending budget has been sent to the Executive and will come into force on 1 January 2026.
