Barely a few hours had passed since the savage criticism of Facundo Manes to Mauricio Macri on television and the scandal was already large. For this reason, some of the highest leaders of radicalism communicated with each other to decide what to do.
Many PRO militants asked to exclude the neuroscientist of Together for Change and the silence of the centennial party did not help to calm the waters: “At the risk that Facundo could feel isolated, a partisan declaration had to be made,” reveals to NEWS one of the shipowners of radicalism.
“The National Committee works daily to strengthen Together, which is the only tool to end Kirchnerism,” says the statement published on Tuesday morning, April 4.
Then came the internal repercussions: Gerardo Morales, president of the UCR and possible candidate for the presidency -place that is disputed with Manes-, did not speak with the deputy from Buenos Airesbut the second lines did.
“The idea of the National Committee was to make it clear to Facundo that the tension between the coalition parties is handled by the Committee, not the pre-candidates. What he thinks is on a personal level, the space cannot be involved, ”said one of the leaders who served as a link within radicalism. Close to Manes they defend him: “That statement was made by a few leaders. In addition, the Buenos Aires committee he banked Facundo”. For a moment, the short circuits also tripped the circuit breaker of the centenary party.
It is not the first time that the neuroscientist has caused a shock in the opposition. Willing to confront the PRO so that radicalism ceases to be the tail end of the coalition, he points to Macri, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta or Patricia Bullrich without distinction. He has only been in politics for two years, but with elbows he has already managed to settle among the presidential candidates.
Bomb. “There were operators who handled justice and also evidence that makes it clear that he spied on people from his own government,” Manes fired at Macri. In an interview on LN+, the deputy indicated that the former president had “to reflect”, because in his government there was “institutional populism”. Enough to warrant controversy.
The rain of responses from leaders of the PRO was celebrated even at the Casa Rosada. It is that while the ruling party is ordered despite the crisis, the opposition creaks. “The Manes episode is hilarious, it is for a psychiatric doctor”, celebrated the deputy of the Front of All Leandro Santoro.
Larreta, Bullrich and María Eugenia Vidal left in tandem to answer him. But also the president of the UCR: “It has been an excess,” he said Morales. The hawks of the coalition made a feast: “The one who brought the neurocoso to take him away,” Fernando Iglesias posted on Twitter, paraphrasing Sergio Berni.
“Facundo tries to expand the space. And in that eagerness, he says things that he does not finish measuring ”, justifies one of his shipowners. In the macrismo, they disbelieve in that position: “He is not innocent: he understands a lot about politics, and if he said it, it is because he wanted to”, they protest.
In any case, Macri believes have made a good profit on what happened. As he confessed to his inner circle, he was pleased with the corporate defense he had of the coalition leadership. They made him notice a fact that amused him: for two days, the disrespectful hashtag #HairyManes It had been a trend. And he repeated a phrase that he often uses to define the neuroscientist: “How can it be that a person who studies the brain cannot control his own?” He wrote to some of his contacts.
Manes’ small table assures that the neuroscientist does not want to damage the coalition, but understands that there are discussions that have to take place if radicalism wants to impose its candidate. “It seems that Macri cannot be criticized”, they repeat in each cafe when they are reproached for Manes’ attitude. And they complete: “Macri said that radicalism is populist, Carrió crossed Frigerio, Ritondo shot Lilita who is ‘toxic’, Lousteau said that Larreta buys everything he can buy. And against the only one they make a statement is against Facundo. Explain it to me.”
Manes thing in politics it is atypical. In Together for Changemost of the leaders assure that they have a good personal relationship with him, beyond the fact that they publicly criticize him. Except Macri, with whom he has no contact, the other candidates speak frequently with the radical.
In the middle of the quagmire, there was a note of color that stands out near the neuroscientist: some leaders who publicly lashed him, hawks included, previously wrote to his cell phone to let him know that they felt obliged to cross it. Things of politics: he who warns does not betray.
In race. Manes turned to politics with one intention: to be president. As was decided during the mid-term elections, he had to enter the Congress, but a bench does not complete it. In his head there is no other chair than that of Rivadavia. He believes that he has the necessary tools to do good management, jumping the crack.
In addition, at least for now, he considers that the course is the right one. “The only explanation for so much noise around Facundo is that he is growing in the polls. That’s why they want to indoctrinate him. And since he doesn’t come from politics, he has no commitment. He is disruptive,” they grandly analyze around them.
The neuroscientist drags the scrolls of a successful private career. PRO analysts studied him in depth and highlight two issues: people believe him, but he still has a high level of ignorance as a candidate.
It is that within the Chamber of Deputies he did not have many chances to show himself. In a virtually paralyzed Congress, his work was not the most profuse: he is a signatory of 18 bills and eight resolutions, as stated in his digital section.
Curiously, in Deputies it had more impact due to inaction than due to action. He was the only one of the legislators from the Together for Change block who did not stamp his signature on the request for impeachment of Alberto Fernández, after the President compared prosecutor Diego Luciani with Alberto Nisman. He argued his decision on networks: “What the President said is embarrassing, but the request for impeachment is an extreme measure.”
In his office they go further: “It was something very serious to do it so lightly. The President made a statement in TN on a Wednesday night and on Thursday morning he was already thinking about the project that they had brought from the PRO, ”they explain. And they complete: “They didn’t let us discuss it, chat about it, add a comma. It had to be signed without reading. And Facundo doesn’t do things that way.”
It was not the first controversy. On March 1, during the start of ordinary sessions, he had already differentiated himself from his block. As soon as the President began to give his speech, the opposition legislators rose. He was the only one who remained seated and that image went viral: “We already tried not listening to each other and that’s how we are,” he sentenced.
Outside the Chamber, Manes has already started a national tour. In September he finished the first stage of 70 cities in a caravan of Fiat 500 plotted with his new slogan, Empathy. At each stop he carried out at least two activities: going through the radical committee of the place and giving a talk in the main square. The first to meet with his co-religionists and the second to speak to the general public, often not politicized.
In October, the new part of his career began in 2023. “Until now we wanted to expose that the crack can be jumped. Now Facundo is going to develop his economic and development plan.” The first week, at least, the plan failed. Manes and his team spent their time explaining their television statements and receiving reprimands from their space colleagues.
But the tensions cannot last that long. Before the end of the year, in the UCR they want to decide who will be their candidate, between Morales and Manes, so as not to arrive weakened to the fight with the PRO, the internal rival to beat.
That alarms the space created by Macri, used to leading the opposition. While some believe that there will be no problem in imposing their candidates, others believe that arriving with a dance of names will divide their votes, while radicalism will be unified. The result could put a leader of the centennial party to dispute the presidency against the Front of All.
The decision. Twice Manes had flirted with politics before confirming his candidacy, the one that took him to the lower house. In 2017 he was tempted for the first time by Cambiemos to be part of the list of deputies, but he did not accept. And in 2019 he began to elaborate the theory of the “non-traditional” candidate.
At that time, he already marked the differences that today make him an uncomfortable candidate for the opposition. It is that he not only pointed to Kirchnerism. He said that he wanted to get out of the River-Boca logic that Macri and Cristina proposed. “I think that Argentina has an important challenge, which is that we citizens press for a common purpose”, he repeated in his talks that were promoted as “the knowledge revolution”.
The day of decision finally arrived. It was on July 3, 2021 when he revealed that he would make the leap, hand in hand with the UCR. There were three weeks left before the closing of the PASO lists: “We cannot allow fear to paralyze us. It is time to be present, “he said in a video that was broadcast on his networks.
It was not a soft landing in politics. Manes got into a fight with the protagonists of the opposition. “I hope that the taxes of the porteños are not spent in the Buenos Aires campaign,” he told Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, who promoted Diego Santilli in the province. Even the radical Luis Brandoni rebuked him: “Manes was reckless, he lacks political practice,” he said. There was an escalation of tension that only subsided when they accidentally passed each other in the parking lot of a television station. They signed the peace so that the campaign could continue.
But the biggest short circuit occurred with Elisa Carrió. The neuroscientist said in a report that she had offered him to be her vice candidate in 2015. Carrió denied it: “Mythomaniacs are not allowed in Together for Change,” he exploded on her networks.
His break into politics was marked more by attacks on his own than on strangers. “I was never part of Cambiemos”, he clarified in each interview to differentiate himself from the 2015-2019 administration.
In the primaries he was behind Santilli, but he got more than 1,250,000 votes. There are two ways to present that result. The PRO uses the most linear: lost. But his team assures that he added the necessary votes so that in the general elections the blow against the Frente de Todos took place, nothing more and nothing less than in the province of Buenos Aires.
Manes is still in fighting mode to achieve his presidential utopia. “He does not seek to rival, he seeks to lead,” they argue at his small table. He doesn’t even care if Kirchnerism is considered functional. He is doing what he thinks is necessary so that the PRO does not submit him in the next elections: even if it means taking the opposition to the ledge.
