News of opinion

A busy week for corruption

Today 05:37 Edgardo Kueider’s situation is explicit, bombastic. But not uncommon in Argentine politics.

by Agustino Fontevecchia

Who was Milei’s audience?

11-12-2024 23:45 With an almost religious hope of 2025 being a growth year, President Milei used his first anniversary address to talk to the ‘círculo rojo’ business establishment and his run-off voters, with no concrete announcements for ordinary people.

by Javier Calvo

Analysing Argentina

Year one: Milei surpassed expectations, but now faces high ones

07-12-2024 06:51 The question of whether Milei will be an anecdote or a new force that defines an era will largely begin to be answered in 2025. First and foremost, it will depend on the economy, and second — but by no means less important — on the midterm elections in October.

by Marcelo J. García

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

No quorum, no forum

07-12-2024 05:30 Congress becomes its own worst enemy when deputies and senators refuse to do the work for which the tax-payer remunerates them.

by Michael Soltys

MILEI'S FIRST YEAR

Milei’s self-congratulatory maiden year

07-12-2024 00:36 A year in, Milei is surfing the wave of popularity, feeling invincible as he receives the constant attention of the international media, which in turn feeds his ego even further.

by Agustino Fontevecchia

OPINION & ANALYSIS

A year with Javier Milei

06-12-2024 17:00 President Javier Milei’s election last year marked a radical shift in Argentina’s history. We need to retool everything, integrating political analysis with technology and the vision of the world of people who interrelate by looking at screens, turning away from real faces.

by Jaime Duran Barba

POLITICS – ANALYSIS

The ecstasy of Javier Milei

30-11-2024 05:48 Things look rosy for the libertarians at this juncture, encouraging them to become even more ambitious.

by Agustino Fontevecchia

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

The protectionist racket

30-11-2024 05:37 While Donald Trump and Javier Milei might be a mutual admiration society, they are moving in opposite directions on protectionism.

by Michael Soltys

Analysing Argentina

Milei and nothing but Milei

30-11-2024 05:12 If the opposition wants to challenge the President, the best they could do is to try something radically different. This is exactly what Milei did when he launched his political career.

by Marcelo J. García

As I see it

Green going out of fashion

23-11-2024 06:00 Javier Milei is far from being the only prominent person who thinks global-warming activists have rather more in mind than an understandable desire to prevent the entire planet from going up in flames.

by James Neilson

ANALYSING ARGENTINA

Milei and his Doppelganger

23-11-2024 06:00 There may be two Javier Mileis. One lives on Planet Earth and engages with people he said he loathed, and another fights fantasy battles in a parallel reality on social media. Which one will prevail?

by Marcelo J. García

POLITICS – ANALYSIS

‘Fat Dan’ and libertarian childishness

23-11-2024 06:00 The childish attitudes of Milei 'troll army' come as the government has regained momentum in opinion polls.

by Agustino Fontevecchia

OPINION & ANALYSIS

Long live pragmatism, carajo!

21-11-2024 18:04 President Javier Milei is adjusting his rhetoric to the challenges of power – from his frosty exchanges with Lula and his rapprochement with Xi Jinping, to his contradictions with Emmanuel Macron and Giorgia Meloni.

by Javier Calvo

POLITICS – ANALYSIS

Javier Milei’s obsession with sub-aquatic flatulence

16-11-2024 06:34 Is the economy rising like scuba diver flatulence? It doesn’t really matter, as long as Milei says it does, and a substantial portion of society believes him.

by Agustino Fontevecchia

POLITICS – ANALYSIS

Move over Javi, the Big Boss is back

09-11-2024 06:24 The return of Donald Trump, the undisputed 'top dog' of the new right, will consolidate a global movement that, up until now, appeared to be somewhat disjointed.

by Agustino Fontevecchia

US ELECTION 2024 – ANALYSIS

MAGAlomaniac – no Camelot for Kamala

09-11-2024 06:13 Milei does not seem to care a hoot about Trump being politically incorrect but he should worry more about his being fiscally incorrect.

by Michael Soltys

ANALYSING ARGENTINA

Welcome to the New Political Order

09-11-2024 06:01 Trump’s victory and the Brexit referendum in 2016 marked the first significant political manifestations of a change of order. Trump’s impressive comeback this week appears to solidify it further. The next question is where President Javier Milei fits into this puzzle.

by Marcelo J. García

POLITICS – ANALYSIS

Zurdos de mierda

02-11-2024 06:52 Language is viral, particularly in hyper-connected urban societies, and is particularly sticky among the youth. Indeed, it is probably the first frontier in trying to permeate the consciousness of a population, and therefore the frontline of the culture war.

by Agustino Fontevecchia

ANALYSING ARGENTINA

The Caputos spread their tentacles over the Mileis

26-10-2024 05:37 Not so long ago, two Caputos in Milei's inner circle seemed one too many. But now, Santiago and Luis Caputo are working closely in tandem.

by Marcelo J. García

GUEST COLUMN

Special organic laws and presidential vetoes

23-10-2024 11:20 The total or partial veto of a law should never be used as a tool for conflict, it should only to be understood as an exceptional instrument permitting evidently unconstitutional situations in approved laws to be corrected.

by Andrés Gil Domínguez

ANALYSING ARGENTINA

Milei the Great or Milei the Footnote?

19-10-2024 06:44 The problems Argentina faces are too big and too enduring for anyone to solve alone, especially when alienating much of the rest of the world.

by Marcelo J. García

As I see it

Milei and the uses of fanaticism

19-10-2024 06:23 Javier Milei’s reputation, and with it his ability to rule, depends on his willingness to stick to his fiscal guns, come what may.

by James Neilson

Analysing Argentina

Milei’s deserved but premature celebration

12-10-2024 06:09 If two highly sensitive issues like pensions and universities fail to gather the two-thirds majority needed to overturn vetoes, President Milei can rest assured that his executive powers will remain intact for another year.

by Marcelo J. García

POLITICS – ANALYSIS

Veto power! Milei’s ‘caste-like’ adaptations

12-10-2024 06:04 Milei’s libertarians took on two of the most sensitive issues in Argentine politics – our grannies and public education – and successfully came out of the bout on top without sparking an uprising.

by Agustino Fontevecchia

POLITICS – ANALYSIS

La persuasión avanza

10-10-2024 23:08 The government has long accepted the fragility, both quantitatively and qualitatively, of its legislative strength. But like good bilardistas, they believe that when you win, you win.

by Javier Calvo

ANALYSING ARGENTINA

Will Cristina Fernández de Kirchner attempt a comeback?

05-10-2024 06:21 As Otto von Bismarck famously said, “politics is the art of the possible.”

by Marcelo J. García

OPINION & ANALYSIS

The real Nayib Bukele – and his relationship with Javier Milei

04-10-2024 11:09 Despite this week’s attempts to play up ties between their two nations, there are remarkable differences between the presidents of El Salvador and Argentina.

by Eduardo Reina

POLITICS – ANALYSIS

Is Milei's star beginning to fade?

28-09-2024 06:55 The first economist to become president in Argentina, he is banking on a rebound that has remained elusive thus far. The risks will only increase until people begin to feel the improvement

by Agustino Fontevecchia

ANALYSING ARGENTINA

No future for Milei

28-09-2024 06:33 President Milei’s first speech at the UN General Assembly was the latest example of the many fruitless symbolic battles that Argentina’s 21st-century Don Quixote chooses to fight to feed his foundational ego trip.

by Marcelo J. García

POLLING

President's popularity drops – how he ranks against regional leaders

27-09-2024 16:30 Milei’s image falling: in three months, it went down 9.3% in ranking of South American presidents; New CB Consultora poll put Argentina’s President sixth in list of regional leaders.

POLITICS & THE MEDIA

Press freedom in Argentina in the age of Javier Milei

21-09-2024 06:43 Milei, a by-product of the media ecosystem, has taken specific actions to curb press freedom, attacking the industry’s finances and limiting journalists’ access to information.

by Agustino Fontevecchia

ANALYSING ARGENTINA

Milei’s Bermuda Triangle

21-09-2024 06:31 Milei’s political future lies within a triangle defined by inflation, approval ratings, and unemployment.

by Marcelo J. García

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Higher learning versus hire learning

21-09-2024 06:19 There is no chance of improving the quality of higher education without doing something about the quantity of both universities and students.

by Michael Soltys

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Teachers left alone

14-09-2024 09:35 If education began with Socrates and his pupil Plato on two ends of a log, both learning and teaching are in crisis today.

by Michael Soltys

ANALYSING ARGENTINA

Javier Milei in the real world of the Lilliputians

14-09-2024 05:51 There may be nothing more “caste” than a group of deputies who vote one way one day and another way a few weeks later. But Milei knows that some elements of the caste are more useful than others, depending on which side of the political equation they fall.

by Marcelo J. García

As I see it

A most illiberal libertarian

07-09-2024 06:06 Is Milei a democrat? Probably not; it is increasingly clear that, by instinct, he is an authoritarian who does not take kindly to even mild criticism.

by James Neilson

ANALYSING ARGENTINA

Decisions Milei refuses to make

07-09-2024 05:52 Milei will eventually pay the political price for the decisions he fails to make today. His current popularity, buoyed by the perception that recession is the lesser evil compared to rampant inflation, won’t last forever.

by Marcelo J. García

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

The whys and whens of decline

07-09-2024 05:08 Analysts of Argentina’s decline understandably focus on the whys but there is a strong case for saying that they are inextricably intertwined with the whens.

by Michael Soltys

Day of the Immigrant

Bhavna Sharma: Diversity makes us stronger

04-09-2024 06:52 I feel there is a thread that unites Argentine and British people: the conviction that diversity makes us stronger.

POLITICS – ANALYSIS

Selling your soul to the devil?

31-08-2024 05:40 Macri and Milei are still feeling each other out, much like heavyweight boxers who dance around each other throwing light jabs for fear of being hit with an uppercut. All of which begs the question, who will stab the other one in the back first?

by Agustino Fontevecchia

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

When ugly ducklings are black swans

31-08-2024 05:27 How can the libertarian creed possibly have anything in common with the totalitarian model of a military dictatorship?

by Michael Soltys

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Worthy of their hire?

24-08-2024 05:31 Two other leading issues this past week – the senatorial pay hike and Congress rejection of the 12-digit SIDE intelligence booster. Nothing is black and white but try convincing most people otherwise.

by Michael Soltys

As I see it

Milei’s party a prey to infighting

24-08-2024 05:29 In democratic countries, leaders of a ruling party that has little to fear from an opposition in disarray soon find themselves confronting internal rebellions. In Argentina, Javier Milei’s party finds itself in a similar situation.

by James Neilson

OPINION & ANALYSIS

Political sewers on the boil

24-08-2024 05:15 Intelligence sectors in conflict threaten to throw the book at each other, exposing shady deals and problematic situations in private lives.

by Javier Calvo

POLITICS – ANALYSIS

War between Milei and Villarruel escalates

22-08-2024 14:33 Dispute between President Javier Milei and Vice-President Victoria Villarruel has been publicly exposed. The question is no longer why it is happening, but how it can end.

by Javier Calvo

OPINION & ANALYSIS

Irrationalism, fantastic pseudology and denial

20-08-2024 16:11 Politicians and demagogic extremists of any kind are often responsible for feeding corrosive material to our neurons – but we are usually the ones guilty for ignoring reliable information and using extremely narrow analytical patterns.

by Martín A. Morgenstern

OPINION & ANALYSIS

Oh my Americas, the forgotten land

17-08-2024 07:47 Whether it’s energy, or minerals, lithium and copper, certainly food (think soy and wheat), Latin America should be the go-to arena for the wider world, not some afterthought.

by David Smith

ANALYSING ARGENTINA

Milei fighting with himself

17-08-2024 06:40 The scandal surrounding former president Alberto Fernández and his ex-partner, former first lady Fabiola Yáñez, seems to confirm Milei’s campaign truism that the country’s politicians were not only inept but also morally bankrupt.

by Marcelo J. García

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Liberating the Liberator

17-08-2024 06:31 Today is the 174th anniversary of the death of independence hero José de San Martín – but he has become so frozen in marble that his humanity escapes our grasp.

by Michael Soltys