Mexico's Congress was on the verge of a constitutional crisis yesterday that threatened to force President Ernesto Zedillo to postpone his annual State of the Nation address.
An unprecedented political showdown developed when a block of four opposition parties, using its first ever majority, installed a new lower house on Saturday that was boycotted by the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
Going ahead with the new legislature without the 239 PRI deputies was a calculated slap in the face for the party that has ruled Mexico for 68 years. The PRI lost its majority in the Chamber of Deputies in mid-term elections in July for the first time ever.
Calling the opposition's act illegal, the PRI scheduled its own session last evening to set up a parallel Chamber of Deputies, though legal experts said it would have no power.
PRI senators also said they would boycott the opening of a joint session of Congress today, which would preclude President Zedillo from making his annual speech for lack of a quorum.
The "Informe", as the president's address is known, has always been a symbol of the power of the head of state in Mexico, and the failure to deliver it would be a jolt to a system that has already been shaken to the core this year.
Opposition legislators said the postponement of the address - as well as the congressional chaos - could lead to a sell-off in Mexican financial markets when they reopen tomorrow. They accused the PRI of defying the constitution.
"They are attempting a legislative coup," Mr Carlos Medina, head of the opposition National Action Party (PAN) in the Chamber of Deputies, told reporters.
Legal experts said the opposition alliance was within its constitutional rights to install the lower house on Saturday, because it did it with a majority of 255 out of the chamber's 500 deputies.
PRI deputies, however, insisted they had the law on their side and President Zedillo issued a statement late on Saturday calling on all sides to reach consensus.
He said he was aware there was "controversy" over the way the lower house had been installed, and offered the services of the Interior Minister, Mr Emilio Chauyffet, as a mediator. That offer was immediately rejected by the opposition.
"I agree that it is not the duty of the executive to interfere in any way in the internal decisions of the Congress," said Mr Porfirio Munoz Ledo, the opposition leader who was elected on Saturday to head the lower house for its first month despite the PRI's disapproval.
Mr Munoz Ledo, who heads the left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) in the lower house, was at the centre of the storm in Congress. He was considered Mexico's most brilliant orator and a dangerous enemy of the PRI, and the party had been bent on stopping his power increasing.
In one of his first moves as head of the lower house, he ordered President Zedillo's speech and the opening of Congress to be moved to 5 p.m. today from 11 a.m.
He also warned of financial crisis. "There can't be a [parallel] chamber. It's a fiction. It could hurt the country and create the impression of a crisis that doesn't exist," he said.