News of general election

UK ELECTION 2024

Labour hoping for historic win as UK voters go to the polls

04-07-2024 14:49 Polls show centre-left Labour party set for its first general election win since 2005 – making Keir Starmer the party's first prime minister since Gordon Brown in 2010.

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Going to the dogs?

16-12-2023 07:20 This final election 2023 column concludes a series running the length of the campaign – now it’s time to detail the resulting political architecture in the present tense.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Method in his madness?

25-11-2023 14:16 Javier Milei’s solitary rise to the top from almost nowhere in a couple of years is more apparent than real. The key to this success is more like the solution to Agatha Christie’s 'Murder on the Orient Express' – they all did it.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Crouching tiger, hidden lion

28-10-2023 04:18 Fear of the unknown is such a conservative emotion that instead people ended up clinging to the status quo, inflation and scandals included.

by Michael Soltys

Campaign comments

Expecting every voter to do their duty

21-10-2023 05:51 While tomorrow’s election is widely seen as a three-cornered affair (like the hats in the times of Trafalgar), all three of its fleets tend to believe that there are only two sides. Could tomorrow’s election echo the battle by ultimately leading to a breakdown of existing alliances with a new Argentina eventually resulting?

by Michael Soltys

EDITORIAL

Tomorrow never knows

21-10-2023 05:46 Tomorrow is the time to go beyond day-day thinking and ponder the next four years.

ELECTION 2023

Can Bullrich and Massa face the ‘Milei-tide’?

30-09-2023 05:08 The only candidate who could be moderately competitive in a run-off against Milei appears to be Bullrich, who is the farthest from taking that spot, if opinion polls are to be trusted.

by Agustino Fontevecchia

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Will Mendoza be the bulldozer?

23-09-2023 05:03 Whichever way Mendoza goes, it will be the last throw of the dice before general election day on October 22.

by Michael Soltys

ELECTION 2023

Poll: Milei growing ahead of election, Massa on rise, Bullrich takes a dive

18-09-2023 17:41 New Opina Argentina survey offers projections ahead of the general election; Libertarian frontrunner grows in polls but comeback looks difficult for Bullrich; Massa on track to finish second.

ELECTION 2023

Operation Beat Milei – Massa’s emergency election campaign

05-09-2023 14:35 Sergio Massa unveils package of measures to be competitive; With Lula's request and a gubernatorial rebuff ringing in his ears, Sergio Massa is fighting for Javier Milei's votes.

by Juan Luis González

ELECTION 2023

Bullrich suggests Schiaretti should drop his presidential candidacy

05-09-2023 14:15 Patricia Bullrich states that "it would be a good idea for Schiaretti not to be a candidate for president" and for his voters to "strategically" back her ticket instead.

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Neither ready nor steady but still go

02-09-2023 06:24 Is there any structure beneath the protest vote foam – is there any iceberg below the tip?

by Michael Soltys

Election 2023

Milei, telepathic conversations with dogs and mental health

02-09-2023 06:17 Beyond allegedly having telepathic conversation with living and dead animals, God and historical economists, Milei has an extremely short fuse, quickly escalating into a level of rage that is uncommon in someone expected to lead in times of crisis.

by Agustino Fontevecchia

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Milei – melee or millennial?

26-08-2023 06:00 The Milei vote can be seen as a backlash against impoverishment, laid at the door of a regime belittling self-made wealth, meritocracy and savings.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Two’s grieta, three’s a crowd

19-08-2023 06:01 While we are constantly told that Greater Buenos Aires is the “mother of all battles” deciding every election, Javier Milei’s win was hinterland payback, winning 16 of the 23 provinces, all inland – the mirror image of his 2021 midterm electoral advent

by Michael Soltys

PASO PRIMARIES 2023 – ANALYSIS

The serpent’s egg

15-08-2023 14:26 Until now the PASO primary winner has always reached the Presidency or at least the run-off. Does this guarantee Milei a place in the second round with Patricia Bullrich and Sergio Massa fighting it out for the other spot?

by Jorge Fontevecchia

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Santa Fe not so holy or faithful

15-07-2023 06:56 Turning to tomorrow’s PASO primary in Santa Fe, the mutual backstabbing within Juntos por el Cambio mentioned above is far from absent there – indeed nowhere else is the internal warfare more open.

by Michael Soltys

ELECTION 2023

Candidacy-buying allegations pile pressure on Javier Milei

14-07-2023 07:45 Libertarian lawmaker rejects multiple claims from former allies that his party is selling candidacies and places on its electoral lists for cold hard cash (in dollars, of course).

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

The elections according to Saint John

08-07-2023 06:59 San Juan is not an especially attractive city for tourists but it does have an uncanny knack for being a venue for key turning-points in Argentine political history.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

The men in the middle

01-07-2023 08:46 Hard not to read this as an unmitigated defeat for Cristina Fernández de Kirchner but those who see her as the ultimate political genius view this as a cunning move to leave Massa holding the baby for an inevitable national defeat while tightening her own grip on pivotal Buenos Aires Province.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Northwest by northeast

24-06-2023 01:22 We will have to await Chaco’s final provincial elections on September 17 to see how many degrees last Sunday’s political earthquake rated on the Richter scale.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Toward zero

17-06-2023 06:10 This is an election in which anything could happen – and also nothing, as is occurring in province after province. Pseudo-change in San Luis and a rock-solid majority in Tucumán attest to an underlying provincial continuity at all odds with a volatile national scenario.

by Michael Soltys

AND THAT REMINDS ME…

Of infighting and inland voting

10-06-2023 06:27 The deadline for defining electoral alliances nationwide expires in only four days’ time but tomorrow’s provincial elections are even more immediate … Tucumán is looking safe for the Frente de Todos government while San Luis could be close.

by Michael Soltys

Campaign comments

Umpteen candidates in search of an author

03-06-2023 06:08 If Horacio Rodríguez Larreta had again thwarted Mauricio Macri plans by imposing Fernán Quirós over Jorge Macri, this would have been three strikes and out in the PRO founder’s esteem – a hostility potentially fatal to the outgoing City mayor’s presidential ambitions.

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

A no-win election

27-05-2023 06:45 The fact remains that the last three people to run Argentina have all opted to sit this election out. The only question here is what lies behind their “fear to tread.”

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Under the volcano

20-05-2023 07:00 If three-quarters of the disenchanted in Tierra del Fuego preferred to vote blank than for an explicitly libertarian candidate, who is to say this might not be replicated nationwide?

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Three’s a crowd

06-05-2023 06:47 Tomorrow is Jujuy’s turn to go to the polls together with La Rioja and Misiones – can lightning strike twice?

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Out of the pink (house) and into the blue

29-04-2023 06:55 In a country where the urgent almost invariably displaces the important, Alberto Fernández’s premature entry into “lame duck” status has had immediate consequences.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

PRO or provincial?

21-04-2023 09:56 Does the end of six decades of one-party rule in Neuquén mark a new era for the province now and for the nation later this year?

by Michael Soltys

POLITICS – ANALYSIS

Lacking agreement, Frente de Todos heads towards decisive month

12-04-2023 23:23 Ruling coalition no closer to deciding its line-up for the PASO primaries; Justicialist Party (PJ) National Council set to meet at the end of April, but President Alberto Fernandez will not define his candidacy until May.

by Rosario Ayerdi

Campaign comments

April is the cruellest month

08-04-2023 06:02 The results of the local elections so far are puzzling – incumbents winning in often heavy turnouts when opinion poll after opinion poll is telling us that there are masses of angry and alienated voters out there.

by Michael Soltys

POLITICS

Eduardo ‘Wado’ de Pedro: Frente de Todos will hold presidential primary

05-04-2023 11:55 Interior minister and La Cámpora leader Eduardo ‘Wado’ de Pedro says ruling coalition will go to PASO to decide its presidential candidate, adding that outcome is a result of a unilateral decision by President Alberto Fernández.

Interview with president

Alberto Fernández says Milei is a ‘threat’ to democracy

30-03-2023 14:24 Argentina’s president gives interview discussing his meeting with US President Joe Biden, the ruling coalition’s line-up for the PASO primaries, whether he will run for a second term and why he thinks libertarian lawmaker Javier Milei is a “threat to democracy.”

ELECTIONS 2023

Dates defined: Argentina’s 2023 electoral timeline confirmed

16-03-2023 18:05 The National Electoral Court on Thursday approved the timetable for this year’s elections, including the dates of the primaries and general elections.