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.

2021: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

2021: The year that was

31-12-2021 13:44 Covid-19 dominates another year, with the the global vaccine race illustrating the very best and worst of humanity. Aside from coronavirus (a crucial factor in the ‘VIP vaccine’ and ‘Olivosgate’ political scandals), the death of former president Carlos Menem, rising prices and poverty, trigger-happy policing, IMF debt talks and key elections across the region steal the show – including Argentina’s PASO primaries and midterms, which reshape the political landscape. This is 2021: the year that was.

by Michael Soltys

AND THAT REMINDS ME…

An epic victory, or mythical?

20-11-2021 00:00 To my mind, last Sunday’s midterms have a historic significance for reasons other than those usually given – as heralding the end of Kirchnerism (although not necessarily Peronism) and that truly impressive Senate breakthrough, doubling opposition numbers in just six years.

by Michael Soltys

And that reminds me…

Black swan song

12-11-2021 21:57 Not only does murder most foul occur elsewhere in the world but also in this country – the murder rate in Buenos Aires Province has averaged a couple every day for some years now while Rosario has become a byword for ferocity.

by Michael Soltys

And that reminds me

Veep on the beep

05-11-2021 18:01 Vice-President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has repeatedly said over the years in the course of lengthy speeches that she does not believe that there is any such thing as coincidence.

by Michael Soltys

And that reminds me…

A tale of two anniversaries

29-10-2021 22:08 With the election campaign now entering its final fortnight, both sides of the political divide have found significant occasions to flag the faith.

by Michael Soltys

And that reminds me

Keeping up with the Jones Hualas

22-10-2021 22:09 Jones Huala is the wrong poster boy for the indigenous cause but that should not disqualify this extremely fundamental and sensitive issue.

by Michael Soltys

AND THAT REMINDS ME…

Price controls without IDEA(s)

16-10-2021 00:01 The holes in price controls are an all too familiar story in Argentina. All sorts of routes for bypassing them, but the ultimate problem confounding price controls is that even their success against all the odds also contains the seeds of failure.

by Michael Soltys

And that reminds me...

Importing no less important

09-10-2021 12:12 Everybody hails the importance of exports. Imports have no such luck.

by Michael Soltys

And that reminds me…

Interval or interregnum?

01-10-2021 23:00 With multiple scenarios lurking in an uncertain future, what can the past tell us as to what to expect?

by Michael Soltys

And that reminds me

Can Aníbal or (is he a) cannibal?

25-09-2021 00:01 Territorial imperative reigns supreme – at least until the November midterms when it stands or falls.

by Michael Soltys

Victor D’Hondt (1841-1901) was a Ghent lawyer and mathematician who devised the successive division method of proportional representation used to allocate seats.

And that reminds me

D’(H)ont ask me

18-09-2021 00:01 The autistic power plays now underway are only likely to sustain voting anger against a dysfunctional coalition.

by Michael Soltys

And that reminds me…

Twenty years can be something

11-09-2021 09:35 Just as in the preceding generation everybody seemed to remember exactly what they were doing on the day of John Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, so 9/11 has remained the object of universal recall in the last 20 years.

by Michael Soltys

AND THAT REMINDS ME…

Still currents run deep

04-09-2021 10:23 While the pundits quite rightly remind us that it would be rash to extrapolate local results onto the national arena, the fact that Gustavo Valdés virtually trebled the votes for his veteran Peronist rival should send alarm-bells among the ruling coalition.

by Michael Soltys

AND THAT REMINDS ME…

Future tense or tense future?

27-08-2021 23:20 Calling either the PASO primaries or the November midterms this year is tantamount to a mission impossible.

by Michael Soltys

OBITUARY

Malcolm Hunter OBE, key figure in Argentina’s British community, dies at 91

27-08-2021 23:16 Ex-ABCC chief, business leader and charitable soul Malcom Hunter OBE has to go down as one of the most important leaders the British community in Argentina has ever had.

by Michael Soltys

AND THAT REMINDS ME…

Kabul capitulates

21-08-2021 21:34 All too much past and present for Afghanistan but what about the future? The fast forward to the past indicates that nothing is irreversible.

by Michael Soltys

And that reminds me...

Universities Breed Awareness

14-08-2021 07:30 Two centuries ago, UBA was inaugurated in San Ignacio Church next to what is today the Colegio Nacional, giving life to an edict dated August 9, 1821 issued by Buenos Aires Governor Martín Rodríguez – the university was thus pre-presidential.

by Michael Soltys

And that reminds me…

Olympic rings and vicious circles

07-08-2021 10:09 The Tokyo Olympics are now entering into their last throes – a total of 11,656 athletes from 205 countries or territories competing for over 1,000 medals.

by Michael Soltys

AND THAT REMINDS ME…

PASO, step by step

31-07-2021 00:39 Plenty of rhetoric about democratising political representation and restoring transparency to politics, but electoral miscalculation was the exclusive reason for the PASO primaries.

by Michael Soltys

The successive fates of the austral and convertibility would suggest that Argentina’s currency is like Icarus – the closer it flies to the sun, the harder the economy crashes.

AND THAT REMINDS ME…

Mightier than the dollar

24-07-2021 00:34 The successive fates of the austral and convertibility would suggest that Argentina’s currency is like Icarus – the closer it flies to the sun, the harder the economy crashes.

by Michael Soltys

AND THAT REMINDS ME…

Facundo Manes: A nerve specialist for a nervous country?

17-07-2021 11:09 Lots of excited talk about Facundo Manes as an electoral game-changer, but has he given any hint as to the concrete policy proposals the opposition should be offering?

by Michael Soltys

AND THAT REMINDS ME…

Reutemann: A life in multispeed

09-07-2021 22:26 Although never losing an election, whether for governor or senator, all in his native province of Santa Fe, the abiding memory of Reutemann’s political career will always be ducking a presidential run in 2003, thus effectively bequeathing Kirchnerismo to this country.

by Michael Soltys

AND THAT REMINDS ME…

PASO = Pushing A Single Option

03-07-2021 23:13 The attitude that candidacies should be defined by political factions negotiating a single list, rather than the choice of the electorate at large, quite simply insults the citizenry of a democratic society.

by Michael Soltys

And that reminds me

Hugo Chávez, I'll go somewhere else

26-06-2021 00:15 Plenty of opinions on Venezuela here in Argentina, ranging from slavish adoration of the ruling ideology to a rather more prevalent demonisation. Neither is recommended.

by Michael Soltys

And that reminds me…

Grabbing the wealth of health by stealth

19-06-2021 09:51 Replacing Argentina’s fragmented system with a comprehensive public health system is highly rational in principle and there are some positive examples abroad – but what are the chances of these being emulated under the current government?

by Michael Soltys

And that reminds me…

Perusing Peru

12-06-2021 00:11 Political gridlock and Odebrecht corruption were the main causes of Peru’s downturn accelerated by PPK’s ouster in 2018, but the coronavirus pandemic has turned the decline into a free fall – indeed the worst in the region after Venezuela.

by Michael Soltys

Environment and Sustainable Development Minister Juan Cabandié.

And that reminds me…

Covid is not the only c-word

05-06-2021 00:29 World Environment Day is upon us and climate change takes centre stage.

by Michael Soltys

Maud Daverio de Cox’s new book, El misterio de las causalidades.

BOOK REVIEW

Tales of amazing coincidences

05-06-2021 00:18 A look at Maud Daverio de Cox’s new book, 'El misterio de las causalidades.'

by Michael Soltys

AND THAT REMINDS ME…

Germany is the capital of Paris

29-05-2021 11:20 Argentina is an old story for the Paris Club – indeed the oldest story of them all since its very first agreement back in 1956 was with the military regime which had just toppled Peronism.

by Michael Soltys

Argentina and beef: an inseparable relationship.

And that reminds me…

When beef is a beef

22-05-2021 09:51 Back in 2006 the dollars from the commodity price boom perhaps gave Argentina the luxury of being able to sacrifice one of its export markets but that luxury does not exist today.

by Michael Soltys

And that reminds me...

The name of the rose

15-05-2021 15:33 All politics is local, it is often said, and socialism does have its pockets in Argentina, of which the late Lifschitz represented by far the largest, the province of Santa Fe.

by Michael Soltys

Frente de Toods heavyweights put on a show of "unity" in Buenos Aires Province on Wednesday.

THE WEEK IN REVIEW

What we learned this week: May 1 to 8

08-05-2021 00:26 A selection of the stories that caught our eye over the last seven days in Argentina.

by Michael Soltys

And that reminds me...

Nothing more supreme than uncertainty

08-05-2021 00:01 Guzmán is not the first economy minister to be humiliated by political priorities and nor will he be the last.

by Michael Soltys

AND THAT REMINDS ME…

Death be not proud

01-05-2021 00:46 Mario Meoni was not the first Argentine minister to die in office – my newsroom memories stretch all the way back to the Raúl Alfonsín presidency which lost two successive Defence ministers in just nine months.

by Michael Soltys

And that reminds me…

From cultural to dead cows

24-04-2021 09:58 The palindrome province of Neuquén features the paradox of supreme political stability with spasmodic social upheavals.

by Michael Soltys

Why should the political response of Argentina and Peru to extreme socio-economic disintegration not be repeated here?

AND THAT REMINDS ME...

Second waves and tsunamis also electoral

17-04-2021 08:13 The extreme fragmentation of the vote in Peru not only brings back memories from recent Argentine electoral history, but might well also be the shape of things to come for the midterm elections in October.

by Michael Soltys

The PASO primaries system now stands at a crossroads between postponement, suspension and even elimination.

AND THAT REMINDS ME...

Passing up PASO

10-04-2021 08:16 The PASO primaries system now stands at a crossroads between postponement, suspension and even elimination. Neither the government nor the opposition speak with a single voice on this issue where public health realities are as much a factor as political preferences.

by Michael Soltys

AND THAT REMINDS ME ...

East(er) and South (Atlantic)

03-04-2021 08:34 The most memorable Semana Santa of the last generation would undoubtedly be that rocked by the Campo de Mayo carapintada Army uprising of 1987 famously ending with Raúl Alfonsín’s: “Happy Easter, the house is in order”

by Michael Soltys

AND THAT REMINDS ME...

Mercosur’s murky future

27-03-2021 07:27 Mercosur will have problems selling itself to the rest of the world while it cannot sell to itself.

by Michael Soltys

Berni and Santilli during a press conference.

THE WEEK

What we learned this week: March 13 to 20

20-03-2021 08:34 A selection of some of the headlines that caught our eye over the last seven days in Argenina

by Michael Soltys

The nationwide quarantine imposed exactly one year ago today might well have qualified for that cliché “the first day of the rest of your life,” but let us hope that it is not quite as bad as that.

AND THAT REMINDS ME...

A year of fear

20-03-2021 07:08 The nationwide quarantine imposed exactly one year ago today might well have qualified for that cliché “the first day of the rest of your life,” but let us hope that it is not quite as bad as that.

by Michael Soltys

THE WEEK

What we learned this week: March 6th to 13th

13-03-2021 09:16 A selection of stories that caught our eye over the last seven days in Argentina.

by Michael Soltys

The judicial system and the lawfare doctrine.

AND THAT REMINDS ME...

Is justice being done to justice?

13-03-2021 09:03 It’s not realistic to go monkeying around with the Argentine legal system while entering into serious negotiations with the IMF.

by Michael Soltys

COMMUNITY

Ronnie Scott: 103 not out

13-03-2021 08:52 Keep moving would seem to be the secret of Ronnie Scott’s longevity – flying the skies from World War II to the year of Argentina’s first World Cup, he remains on wheels to this day with a driving licence.

by Michael Soltys

The congress in Buenos Aires, epicentre of Alberto´s speech.

AND THAT REMINDS ME...

State of the nation

06-03-2021 09:24 Last Monday was not “100 percent Cristina” – the spirit of her perhaps but not the letter. More credit should go to Cabinet Chief Santiago Cafiero.

by Michael Soltys

The paradox of corruption is that it is such an ingrained everyday phenomenon at many levels that it explodes into big news relatively infrequently.

AND THAT REMINDS ME...

The craft of graft

27-02-2021 08:42 The paradox of corruption is that it is such an ingrained everyday phenomenon at many levels that it explodes into big news relatively infrequently.

by Michael Soltys

OBITUARY:CARLOS SAÚL MENEM (1930-2021)

Carlos Menem: Peronist, president, playboy

20-02-2021 08:07 Late former governor, senator and president – who led the nation for a decade between 1989 and 1999, the longest period of a democratic leader in modern-day Argentina – dies aged 90 at a hospital in Buenos Aires.

by Michael Soltys

AND THAT REMINDS ME...

Charlie was my darling

20-02-2021 07:40 A selection of purely personal memories and perceptions of Carlos Menem, including some that differ from conventional wisdom.

by Michael Soltys

Consensus might sometimes push the right buttons but there is no guarantee and it is not a virtue in itself.

AND THAT REMINDS ME

Suicide pacts are also consensus

13-02-2021 09:14 Consensus might sometimes push the right buttons but there is no guarantee and it is not a virtue in itself.

by Michael Soltys

From left to right: Eva Perón, Juan Domingo Perón and Isabel Perón.

AND THAT REMINDS ME...

All about Eva, whoops, Isabel

06-02-2021 09:40 The importance of trade unionism to Isabel Perón – truly the spine of the Peronist movement in her eyes – has been perhaps insufficiently stressed.

by Michael Soltys