Legislative elections were held in Mexico on 6 July 1997.^[1] The Institutional Revolutionary Party won 239 of the 500 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, the first time it had failed to win a majority. As a result, the leaders of the Party of the Democratic Revolution and of the National Action Party were able to control Congress and installed PRD member Porfirio Muñoz Ledo as the president of the Chamber of Deputies. At first, the PRI refused to accept the nomination and its parliamentary leader, Arturo Núñez Jiménez, declared it illegal. However, the PRI later accepted the fact and Muñoz Ledo answered the state of the union address of President Ernesto Zedillo.

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1997 Mexican legislative election

← 1994 6 July 1997 2000 →

Chamber of Deputies

All 500 seats in the Chamber of Deputies

Party Leader % Seats +/– PRI Humberto Roque Villanueva 39.09 239 −61 PAN Felipe Calderón 26.64 121 +2 PRD Andrés Manuel López Obrador 25.69 125 +54 PVEM Jorge González Torres 3.81 8 +8 PT Alberto Anaya 2.58 7 −3 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

Senate

32 of the 128 seats in the Senate of the Republic

Party Leader % Seats +/– PRI Humberto Roque Villanueva 38.48 76 −19 PAN Felipe Calderón 26.92 33 +8 PRD Andrés Manuel López Obrador 25.83 14 +6 PVEM Jorge González Torres 4.03 1 +1 PT Alberto Anaya 2.55 1 +1 Independents – – 3 +3 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

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The Party of the Cardenist Front of National Reconstruction (PFCRN), Popular Socialist Party (PSP) and Mexican Democratic Party (PDM) all lost their legal registration and disappeared, while the Labor Party (PT) and the Ecologist Green Party of Mexico (PVEM) consolidated their support, which turned them into parties who could form coalition governments. Voter turnout was between 57% and 58%.^[2]

The political landscape saw great change in the years preceding the 1997 midterm elections. Ernesto Zedillo, the PRI's nominee for president in the 1994 general elections was legitimately victorious because he received votes that the previous PRI presidents had not. However, there was a noticeable fragility to the beginning of his mandate as the nation was caught up in a sudden economic crisis (dubbed the "December mistake"), which occurred on 19 December 1994, as a result of an unexpected capital flight and a rise in financial speculation. This led to a near-70% devaluation of the national currency. Due to the seriousness of the problems, the prospect of a president resigning was openly discussed for the first time in a nation with a long-standing presidential tradition.^[3] A number of erratic decisions in the first year of Zedillo's administration heightened the sense of vulnerability, including the police-military operation against the Zapatistas on 9 February 1995, the backing of the contested governors of Chiapas and Tabasco and the resignation of three secretaries of state in less than six months.

However, the Zedillo also reinforced the transition to full democracy:

We Mexicans want a democratic life, at the height of our history, at the height of our diversity; However, we must recognize that democratic advances are still insufficient. The time has come to join our wills without sacrificing our differences; The time has come to unite in the construction of a new democracy that includes a better relationship between citizens and the government, between the states and the Federation; a new ethical code between political contenders and a definitive electoral reform. The time has come when democracy covers all areas of social coexistence.

— Ernesto Zedillo