The former Chief of Staff of the government of Mauricio Macri, Marcos Penawas interviewed by Carlos Pagni in your program Argentine Odyssey by LN+, after several months without exposure in the media. Together with the journalist, the former official spoke about the process he faced after leaving public office, reflected on the leadership of the 21st century and delved into the new demands that society has towards political representatives.
Marcos Peña served as Chief of Staff in the Cambiemos administration since 2015 until 2019. However, in the midst of the presidential election, which would mark the defeat of the ruling coalition, he had already anticipated that in an eventual victory he would step aside. Asked about the reason for this premature decision, he maintained that it was due to years of wear and tear on a professional and personal level.
“There was fatigue all the time having to explain and defend all the Government’s decisions. and that fueled my decision to leave. What happened to me is being able to understand that that experience is equivalent to a trauma and that unresolved trauma is equivalent to a forever repetition of that,” he explained at the beginning of the interview about the processes he had to go through once he concluded his position, which he details more accurately in his new book “The art of going up (and down) the mountain.”
In that sense, he reflected on the role that politicians occupy when they are in public office. He talked about what it feels like to be at the top of the mountain and then go down drastically. “One thinks that leadership is for life and that eats away at people. And it is like vulnerability in the face of (political) death. You have to understand that there are stages and that help is needed when they are closing. It is part of the human dimension that I underestimated and is underestimated.”. Along these lines, he compared the end of the political stage to the end of an athlete’s career, when he must reinvent himself to dedicate himself to something else.
To make his point, Peña recalled what day-to-day life was like as Chief of Staff. “The day is made up of endless people coordination issues, external or internal, of the coalition and the leadership system. All through meetings, thousands of messages WhatsApp, interviews and conversations. “It is about the mediation of people, with a high level of pressure.”
“In addition, there are many personal issues involved”, he recalled and continued: “One of the things that impressed me most in the Headquarters, and that happened to me with the G20, is when you see world figures detonated by emotional issues and then the idealization falls.” Peña assures that despite occupying positions of high power, people continue to behave, in general terms, under the same concepts of childhood: jealousy, anger, favoritism, competition. “There is nothing you don’t learn in a room of five”.
“Everyone goes up and down the mountain. You have approximately 40 or 50 years of professional life. And the only discussion occurs when you go down, but there you have to see how you come down from the top, whether in denial, with trauma or with some dissociation about who you are,” he analyzed.
Peña’s proposal is based on criticism of the current political system. The former official maintains that the political regime of the liberal democracies of the West was not modified from the structural bases formed at the end of the 18th century, verticalism and messianic leaders. But he describes that the advancement of societies and technology requires altering preconceptions already incorporated.
“Humanity has hit the wall with messianic leadership. There is a problem there. But the approaches to questioning well-being have to do with a problem of leadership, and it has to do with a change of speed in societies that the old format does not resist,” he said and highlighted the value of transparency when communicating. . “This is never total, but compared to the hidden kings where the regent was considered a semi-divine being… The institutions on which we operate give off that verticality, the distance and the mystery”. For Peña, society demands authenticity through transparency.
In that line, Pagni reminded him of the phrase “everything is noticeable”, and Peña explained that it is related to the above: “It is the value of authenticity and consistency that become fundamental when things are more visible. The perception of the common neighbor about people in the public sector is often more accurate than those in the specialized world. “Those people see beyond the short signs.” Without stating it, Peña hinted that President Javier Milei responds to that premise of authenticity and transparency with his followers.
Finally, he referred to the phrase for which he was questioned during his time as Chief of Ministers. “He does marketing,” they reproached him. Peña returned to his statements to explain that it was “logical” for him to be called that way, but because “a large part of the system of power continues to think in vertical terms and They look for the magician who manipulates, the manipulator of the moment”, to understand what is being expressed on behalf of the government. That image today could be occupied by the advisor Santiago CaputoHe suggested.
