09/06/2021 23:27
Clarín.com
Opinion
Updated 09/06/2021 23:27
The phrase is said by a radical leader who does not love him, but who respects him.
"A guy who waxes his entire body so that the hairs on his arms are not seen in the photos, he
is willing to do anything
to be president."
It refers to Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, the head of the Buenos Aires government who
risks a lot in the primary elections
next Sunday.
There are photos from the 1990s that show Rodríguez Larreta
before he became bald.
One with his father, who baptized him with his same name, and his brothers where he shows that he had hair. And another on a beach in Punta del Este where
her hair covered most of her body.
A phenomenon that medicine calls hypertrichosis, or more cinematically,
"Werewolf syndrome."
Whether or not that radical leader who says he waxes exaggerates or not, the truth is that Rodríguez Larreta has built in these times
a look of modern peeling
with black sweaters a la Steve Jobs.
With that personal style, he is going to undertake this Sunday
the challenge of becoming a candidate for the Casa Rosada.
It is not a simple process and it is only
the first obstacle
in a never-ending career that could last another two years. Rodríguez Larreta believes that the essential step for any opposition presidential candidate is to
beat Peronism in the province
of Buenos Aires. With that objective, he placed Diego Santilli as the first candidate for deputy in the Province. He is not only his deputy head of government in the City. It is the leader, of those who can compete electorally, who has the greatest confidence.
If Santilli wins the internship of Juntos por el Cambio from neurologist Facundo Manes, Rodríguez Larreta will be able to continue with his presidential project. But if Manes defeats his candidate,
the project will be mortally wounded.
This is how forceful and how unfair politics is sometimes.
Polls anticipate a victory for Santilli
in the opposition primary, but no one risks predictions. It is already known what happened with the polls two years ago, when they
predicted a good choice for Mauricio Macri
against Alberto Fernández. They screwed up ugly and fell into the pit of discredit.
Manes points to that unknown when he punishes Rodríguez Larreta in public. At the beginning of the campaign, he claimed that his rival Santilli was financed with funds from the Buenos Aires state. Now he says that the head of government
leaves the City headless
to dedicate himself only to the campaign. It tries to stigmatize the man in black as the powerful ruler who
represents the status quo of politics.
Only on Sunday will it be known if the attacks have any effect.
Scientist of the crowds until the pandemic broke the talks in the closed theaters, Manes is not exactly an unknown man who comes to challenge power. His foundation, Ineco, has grown
with the sponsored encouragement of the Red Circle
and the governors of the UCR also contribute to its campaign budget. At the forefront of these supporters is Gerardo Morales, the impetuous Jujuy who
waits for the slightest misstep from Rodríguez Larreta
to undertake his own presidential project. The radicals need a good performance of Manes in the Province to return to electoral prominence in the distant 2023.
Of course, the Rodríguez Larreta marathon has much more to come. In addition to a victory for Santilli over Manes, he needs María Eugenia Vidal to make
a decent election in Buenos Aires.
The former governor experienced a traumatic return from the Province to the City, but she seems to be
recovering that vigor that made her defeat Peronism
six years ago. His speech is harsher, his criticisms of the government more pointed, and he defends that administration with more vehemence.
Rodríguez Larreta and Vidal will not have it easy either inside the coalition or outside. Ricardo López Murphy is a
candidate in a state of grace
who disputes the votes of the hardened electorate, and Adolfo Rubinstein embodies, with the stainless accompaniment of Luis “Beto” Brandoni,
the values of the traditional radicalism
that knew how to govern the City for several years. As if that were not enough, they must approach the very good election of 2019.
It is possible that the appearance of López Murphy will help Rodríguez Larreta to add votes that otherwise would have eluded him, but the coalition he is building will also have to face the competition that
economist Javier Milei is presenting him
from a more reactionary right
. A candidate who has been growing in the polls
with an anti-system story,
but who survives with a contract from a large business group and who has already tasted
the honeys of working in the State
with the repressor Antonio Bussi.
If Rodríguez Larreta manages to pass the STEP exam, the race
will have barely started for him. L
or expects a tough test against Peronism in legislative elections on 14 November. And then there will come, in addition to having to continue managing the City in a pandemic, the inevitable challenges of
a UCR strengthened
by the triumphs in the provinces it governs.
And there the obstacles and difficulties do not end. Rodríguez Larreta knows perfectly well that
Patricia Bullrich
resigned from being a candidate on this occasion, but that she
also has a presidential project
among her plans. How do you know that Mauricio Macri's book is called
"Second Time"
because the former president does not rule out
a rematch
after his failed reelection attempt.
Rodríguez Larreta likes to say that to get to the presidency of Argentina you have to run a real marathon.
And that it is necessary to
go all the way to the end.
It is the only way that what does not happen to Filípides, that Greek soldier who ran forty-two kilometers to the city of Marathon to announce the result of a battle against the Persians.
But he
arrived at his destination exhausted
and died without being able to enjoy victory.
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The intern in Córdoba divides Mauricio Macri and Patricia Bullrich, and Horacio Rodríguez Larreta seeks to balance