President López Obrador revealed Thursday that he generally doesn’t attend weddings and baptisms because doing so would take up too much of his time.

He divulged the information after congratulating Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum on her upcoming marriage to Jesús María Tarriba, an official with Mexico’s central bank.

“I don’t usually attend ceremonies, baptisms or weddings,” López Obrador told reporters at his regular news conference after he was asked whether he would attend Sheinbaum’s nuptials.

AMLO added that he hasn’t attended such events for years because he gets a lot of invitations and accepting them would take up a lot of his time.

“I have many friends, millions of friends, brothers, sisters, the truth is there is affection, a lot of affection and it is reciprocated by a lot of people, not just my family,” he said.

Sheinabaum, a close ally of the president, announced Wednesday that she would marry her partner of six years. “Both of us decided [to get married]. … The truth is I’m happy,” she said in an interview.

The mayor declared last month that she is “ready” to become Mexico’s first female president, and is openly campaigning for the Morena party nomination for the 2024 presidential election.

Many political observers believe she’s López Obrador’s preferred successor, but the president asserts he doesn’t have a favorite among those vying to be Morena’s presidential candidate. Not attending his protégé’s wedding is perhaps one way he intends to prove his point.

With reports from El Universal and El Financiero