(Bloomberg) -- Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is just getting started in his drive to cut expenses and to fulfill campaign promises.
His next target is supreme court justices who he believes are making too much money.
After maybe U.S. President Donald Trump, the head of Mexico's Supreme Court must be the highest paid public servant in the world, AMLO said Tuesday morning at his daily press conference. The top court judges make as much as 600,000 pesos ($29,731) per month, he said.
“We can't have a rich government and poor people,” AMLO said.
Lopez Obrador is vowing to not only cut his salary and those of officials fulfilling top government posts, but also planning to raise wages for lower-level public servants. In daily press conferences he's been repeating that you shouldn't get into politics if you want to make money and that it's all about serving your country and people.
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The attacks on the justices, while measured and delivered in AMLO's soft and folksy tone, aren't sitting well with judges.
Top judges around the country issued statements on Monday rejecting his accusations about their high salaries as being “false” and accused him of trying to weaken the justice system.
To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Cancel in Sao Paulo at dcancel@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Giulia Camillo at gcamillo@bloomberg.net, Dale Quinn
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