News of Michael Soltys

Michael Soltys

Michael Soltys, who first entered the Buenos Aires Herald in 1983, held various editorial posts at the newspaper from 1990 and was the lead writer of the publication’s editorials from 1987 until 2017.

Karina Milei and Javier Milei: Curtain falls on opening Congress sessions.

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

The curtain falls … and rises

Today 09:17 The new Senate has no less than 13 caucuses but the big picture has 21 senators responding directly to the Javier Milei administration, 26 in the Kirchnerite orbit, 14 in the centre-right and 11 heeding purely provincial interests.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

And so it (almost) ends

06-12-2025 06:00 Quite apart from the uncertainties over Lorena Villaverde’s Senate entry, Congress has been the scene of musical chairs with its first minority changing in the course of this week.

by Michael Soltys

Campaign comments

Disunited provinces

22-11-2025 06:51 Looking at inland Argentina is far from irrelevant since tax reform is high on the list of President Javier Milei’s priorities with negotiating the revenue sensitivities of provincial governors perhaps the biggest obstacle there.

by Michael Soltys

Campaign comments

The City and the Senate

15-11-2025 05:05 While the government’s overall midterm triumph represented a huge shift from gloomy pre-electoral expectations, this city’s results did not show that much change from last May’s local voting.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Karina rules OK

08-11-2025 06:34 Karina Milei’s claim to the electoral laurels seems a slam dunk, but a different conclusion emerges once we look beyond the big picture to the provincial results.

by Michael Soltys

Campaign comments

The colour purple

01-11-2025 06:10 Despite governing the province for 34 of the last 42 years, the Peronists ran up a hat-trick of national midterm defeats there last Sunday – in 2017, in 2021 and in 2025.

by Michael Soltys

Lower House Speaker Martín Menem and Turkish Ambassador Ömür Budak.

COMMUNITY & DIPLOMACY

Turkish Republic marks 102nd anniversary

31-10-2025 09:01 Ambassador Ömür Budak celebrates 102nd anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Türkiye in style.

by Michael Soltys

Representatives of the ABCC with Ambassador David Cairns.

COMMUNITY

UK ambassador welcomes new ABCC authorities

31-10-2025 08:55 Ambassador David Cairns welcomes newly installed Argentine-British Community Council (ABCC) officials, who plan December Christmas fair at Embassy.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

151 shades of grey

25-10-2025 05:58 Voters are being asked to select not the next president but 127 deputies and 24 senators for which 217 lists are contending in the 23 provinces and this City with a total 1,648 candidates. The multiplicity of combinations arising from these numbers points to an infinity of results, each one of which would make the parliamentary negotiations lying ahead slightly different with no chance of any overall majority – 151 shades of grey.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Trump card or joker in the pack?

18-10-2025 06:15 Milei’s government is confident of success in only seven of Argentina's 24 districts but this fails to point out that fears of defeat are also only limited to seven provinces, with the other 10 up in the air.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

‘Panic Show’ name of the game

11-10-2025 06:00 We are told that the choice is “libertad or kirchnerismo” but neither libertarians nor Kirchnerism will be able to do very much with the 110 of the 257 seats accruing to whoever wins – Argentina’s middle ground has far less seats than Brazil’s "centrão" but could carry equivalent clout.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

A spooky Halloween earlier this month?

04-10-2025 06:38 To lay any claim to a positive result, pundits suggest that Milei would need to be the leading minority with at least 35 percent of the vote. The first objective looks like a done deal since LLA is the only nationwide contender.

by Michael Soltys

Campaign comments

The future’s not ours to see

27-09-2025 06:25 Mayoral tails wagged gubernatorial and presidential dogs in Buenos Aires Province but next month’s midterms stand to be genuinely, not synthetically national with the state of the economy and the quality of governance deciding votes.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

The lion sleeps tonight

20-09-2025 06:31 Milei actually polled a higher percentage in Buenos Aires Province this month than in BA City last May, yet the former is unanimously deemed an unmitigated disaster while the latter was a resounding triumph.

by Michael Soltys

Campaign comments

Blast from the past

13-09-2025 06:09 Last Sunday’s election was very much the mayoral tail wagging the dog and here we’re not just talking about Greater Buenos Aires Peronist “barons” – almost the only successes of third parties came thanks to the PRO mayors bucking the Milei alliance, proving mayoral clout beyond the general trend.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

A tale of two provinces

06-09-2025 07:07 The population of Buenos Aires Province outnumbers over two-thirds (160) of the world’s 233 countries and territories.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Swimming against the current

30-08-2025 06:04 The undecided in Corrientes could just top up Juan Pablo Valdés over the 40 percent needed to ensure first-round victory, although the current Zeitgeist of voter apathy would make it likelier for them to sit this one out.

by Michael Soltys

Campaign comments

Ins and outs of Congress

23-08-2025 06:42 Almost all those deputies taking their leave would doubtless be rubbished by President Milei as “caste” but most carry a political weight far from evident in their prospective replacements.

by Michael Soltys

Campaign comments

Jousting in the lists

16-08-2025 06:30 In broad terms, President Javier Milei’s La Libertad Avanza will be flying solo in half the country whereas Peronism is presenting a united front in three-quarters of the districts, including all the most important except Córdoba.

by Michael Soltys

‘Dracula – a Gothic tale reimagined’; by The Suburban Players.

THEATRE

An interactive Dracula

14-08-2025 17:41 ‘Dracula – a Gothic tale reimagined’; by The Suburban Players; Directed by Peter Macfarlane, MBE; Centro Cultural San Isidro, Av. del Libertador 16138, San Isidro.

by Michael Soltys

Electoral deadlines and alliance mapping.

Campaign comments

Deadlines or lifelines?

09-08-2025 06:52 We have confirmation of one important definition – the La Libertad Avanza far right and the PRO centre-right extending their Buenos Aires Province alliance to this city.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

The future Senate – Victoria’s secret?

04-08-2025 18:15 In more than one province there is potential for polarisation and the traditional two-party system to be replaced by two competitive non-Peronist options leaving Kirchnerism out in the cold along the lines of the 2013 City race.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Darkness at midnight

28-07-2025 15:46 If inner strife tore the centre-right apart in 2023 while eroding the rusty Kirchnerite machine now, is infighting infecting today’s invincibles?

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Anatomy of a macrocephalic

19-07-2025 18:53 While the last census of 2022 showed that Argentina’s population had risen some 15% since the Bicentenary count of 2010, the population of Greater Buenos Aires only rose 9%.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Independence for whom?

12-07-2025 06:13 The Independence Day alliance on the right leaves the Peronists playing catch up after their stab at unification at the Partido Justicialista Congress.

by Michael Soltys

Campaign comments

The autumn of the patriarch

05-07-2025 07:19 Gildo Insfrán’s power stems from the provincial government being by far Formosa’s biggest employer with less than six percent of the workforce having formal jobs in the private sector, boosted by shameless patronage.

by Michael Soltys

Campaign comments

Midterms in midyear

28-06-2025 07:24 Given the total inability of the protagonists in Buenos Aires Province to get their act together, the midterms still four months away are looking more like candidates for “It’s the economy, stupid” than ever.

by Michael Soltys

Campaign comments

Begin the begin

21-06-2025 06:28 Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is paradoxically sidelined and occupying centre stage at the same time. With her exclusion from any electoral candidacy, the campaign effectively starts again.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

The lady vanishes

14-06-2025 06:37 The most immediate question here is who replaces Cristina Fernández de Kirchner at the helm. Problems of Peronist succession have always been so daunting historically that most of the movement would rather not face them.

by Michael Soltys

Campaign comments

On a mission in omission

07-06-2025 06:34 Voting for provincial deputies in Misiones is more likely to be a landslide for the local ruling party than any electoral earthquake.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Where angels fear to tread

31-05-2025 06:33 The demolition job suffered by PRO in the City has most provinces now thinking twice about advancing their elections and exposing local hegemonies to the forces of heaven.

by Michael Soltys

Campaign comments

Milei’s purple patch

24-05-2025 06:38 The headlines all reflect a Milei triumph and a PRO catastrophe (the government objectives in almost equal measure), both accurate enough but also relative.

by Michael Soltys

'Crisis social, pandemia y colonialismo inglés: una mirada de la Argentina a través del sainete y del seminario Don Quijote de Eduardo Sojo'; by Victoria Cox, Ediciones Diotima, 2024, 96 pages.

BOOKS & LITERATURE

Things ain’t what they used to be – and nor were they then

23-05-2025 15:12 'Crisis social, pandemia y colonialismo inglés: una mirada de la Argentina a través del sainete y del seminario Don Quijote de Eduardo Sojo'; by Victoria Cox, Ediciones Diotima, 2024, 96 pages.

by Michael Soltys

Time is ticking for the Forces of Heaven.

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

They also serve who only stand and wait

17-05-2025 06:31 Electoral tides notoriously shift in the final week and even the last minute.

by Michael Soltys

The quartet voting tomorrow (Chaco, Jujuy, Salta and San Luis) totals just under four million inhabitants or nine percent of the country’s population.

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Four-by-four voting

10-05-2025 07:20 Next weekend’s City race hogs the electoral limelight but there is voting even closer in time – like tomorrow when four provinces will be advancing their midterms.

by Michael Soltys

Left to right: Soledad Lago (Director of Biblioteca Central de la UCA), Phyllis Barrantes (Archives Committee UWC), Patricia Caviezel (Archives Com. Chair), Gwendolyn again, Verónica Parselis (UCA Curator, curated the exhibit), Daniel Riccardo (Coordinador Técnico, UCA).

Community

Pioneering women’s ed club celebrates 90th year

09-05-2025 18:39 University Women’s Club of Buenos Aires enters tenth decade, celebrates with new exhibition marking its rich history at UCA library.

by Michael Soltys

Ambassador to Argentina between 2003 and 2006, Lino Gutiérrez.

OBITUARY

Former US ambassador to Argentina Lino Gutiérrez dies aged 74

06-05-2025 17:20 Ambassador to Argentina between 2003 and 2006, Lino Gutiérrez had a long and distinguished career in the US Foreign Service.

by Michael Soltys

City elections 2025: candidates for the legislature.

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

The great debate

01-05-2025 09:39 The absurd multiplicity of 17 list-heading candidates for 30 City Legislature seats can be boiled down into a triangle of the PRO, libertarian and Peronist blocs, although this does not necessarily translate into only three candidates since others stand to make inroads.

by Michael Soltys

BOOKS & LITERATURE

Not just a rationale for atheism

01-05-2025 09:23 ‘Beyond the Gods,’ by Nicolás E. Meyer, Hypatia Press.

by Michael Soltys

Ronnie Scott's funeral at the British Cemetery in Chacarita, Buenos Aires.

COMMUNITY

Ronnie Scott laid to rest at British Cemetery

28-04-2025 15:07 Ronald David Scott remembered with “honour, respect and affection” at service at the British Cemetery in Chacarita.

by Michael Soltys

Campaign comments

First day of the rest of the year

19-04-2025 06:00 Economists have hailed the exit from the cepo as a milestone but this columnist hesitates to consider it an electoral game-changer – there is both too much and too little time for that.

by Michael Soltys

‘Cyrano de Bergerac’ by Edmond Rostand, translated by Brian Hooker; Directed by Dimon Chater; Suburban Players at The Playhouse, San Isidro.

THEATRE

A nose for theatre

18-04-2025 17:57 ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’ by Edmond Rostand, translated by Brian Hooker; Directed by Simon Chater; Suburban Players at The Playhouse, San Isidro.

by Michael Soltys

Ronald David Scott – more commonly known as Ronnie Scott – has died at the age of 107.

OBITUARY

Ronnie Scott, beloved World War II veteran, dies aged 107

17-04-2025 19:41 An inspiration to much of the local community, Ronald David Scott – who volunteered from Argentina to join the Allies’ war effort in 1942 – passes away in his 108th year.

by Michael Soltys

Campaign comments

And so it begins

12-04-2025 05:22 This year’s midterm voting begins tomorrow in the major province of Santa Fe with the constituent assembly elections.

by Michael Soltys

The Orquesta Aeropuertos Argentina marks its 10th anniversary with a concert at the Teatro Colón.

ART & CULTURE

Youthful promise overflows at Teatro Colón

08-04-2025 12:34 Precocious talent on full display at Teatro Colón as Orquesta Aeropuertos Argentina celebrates its 10-year anniversary in style.

by Michael Soltys

Election time: Milei with Trump's support.

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Midterms North and South

05-04-2025 06:48 Midterm results have tended to be adverse in both the United States and Argentina, from a government standpoint. In the former, a mere two of those 10 contests have gone the way of the presidential party – in the latter, the margin is narrower.

by Michael Soltys

The Horseball World Cup in Buenos Aires.

HORSEPLAY IN BUENOS AIRES

Argentina becomes first non-Euro nation to host Horseball World Cup

02-04-2025 08:39 A World Cup unfolding within a space of 1,800 square metres at the Rural Society exhibition grounds in Palermo.

by Michael Soltys

The chainsaw crew? Milei, Trump, Sturzenegger.

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Towards a smarter state

29-03-2025 06:11 The libertarian government seems intent on cutting back a bloated state to its right size without having any clear idea what that size might be.

by Michael Soltys

The first luncheon of the 90th anniversary of the University Women's Club had a guest of honour last Tuesday: outgoing (in every sense of the word) British Ambassador Kirsty Hayes.

COMMUNITY

UK ambassador hails 200 years of bilateral relations in luncheon

28-03-2025 12:19 First luncheon of the 90th anniversary of the University Women's Club had British Ambassador Kirsty Hayes as guest of honour.

by Michael Soltys

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

'Cepo' in review

22-03-2025 07:53 It might well be argued that the ‘cepo,’ the seemingly endless set of currency and capital controls, has been a bane of Argentina’s existence.

by Michael Soltys