Bitter procedural fights between Mexico's government party and the opposition created a sombre backdrop for President Ernesto Zedillo's "Informe" or annual State of the Nation address yesterday evening.
Mr Zedillo, nearing the halfway mark of his six-year term, made history by addressing a new congress not totally controlled by his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
Since July, when the PRI lost its 68-year monopoly on power, the four opposition parties have joined forces in a temporary pact to maximise their influence. The PRI holds 239 of the 500 seats in the Chamber of Deputies.
The left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) has 125 seats and the conservative National Action Party (PAN) 121, with two small parties making up the remainder.
Flaunting their newly-won power, the opposition coalition decided to swear in the new lower house on Saturday despite a PRI boycott and elect a left-wing firebrand, Mr Porfirio Munoz Ledo, as leader of the house.
Their decision infuriated the PRI and took Mexico into uncharted political waters.
For most of Sunday the PRI vowed to boycott the formal opening of Congress yesterday and to set up a parallel rebel parliament in protest at the opposition's actions.
Late on Sunday, however, the PRI congressmen backed down and decided to attend the opening session, allowing President Zedillo's speech to go ahead.