Felipe Solá

Felipe Solá
Governor of Buenos Aires Province
In office 2002–2003 2003 – 2007
Lieutenant	None (2002-03) Graciela Gianetassio (2003-07)
Preceded by	Carlos Ruckauf
Succeeded by	Daniel Scioli
Personal details
Born	(1950-07-23) 23 July 1950 Buenos Aires
Political party	Justicialist Party
Profession	Agricultural engineer

Felipe Solá (born 23 July 1950) is an Argentine politician of the Justicialist Party (Peronism) and was the governor of the province of Buenos Aires since 2002 until he left office in 2007.

Solá is an agricultural engineer. He studied at the University of Buenos Aires. He is married and has two children. He was also a university professor, a journalist, and a counselor and researcher in economics topics.

He was the Minister of Agricultural Affairs in the Cafiero administration in Buenos Aires province (1987–1989); he then was Secretary for Agriculture, Livestock and Fishing for the presidency of Carlos Menem until 1991, when he became a national deputy for Buenos Aires province. He stayed in the Chamber until 1993, when he returned to the presidential administration until 1998.

Felipe Solá (right) talking to President Néstor Kirchner

On 10 December 1999, he became the vice-governor of Buenos Aires under Carlos Ruckauf, and took up the governorship on 3 January 2002, when Ruckauf resigned to become Foreign Affairs Minister of the interim president of Argentina Eduardo Duhalde after the socioeconomic collapse of 2001.

Solá abandoned his political allegiance to Duhalde after President Néstor Kirchner did likewise, aligning with the policies and projects of the national government. He was a supporter of the Kirchnerist candidates in his province during the campaign for the 2005 legislative elections. In 2007, after stepping down as governor, he once again became national deputy for his Province by the Front for Victory.

Back in Congress, Solá became estranged from Kirchnerism during the 2008 Argentine government conflict with the agricultural sector, and left their Front for Victory caucus to become a dissident Peronist. Ahead of the elections of June 2009, he began working with Francisco de Narváez and Mauricio Macri to present a united centre-right coalition of fellow dissident Peronists and the Republican Proposal (PRO) party.

References

• (Spanish) Government of Buenos Aires Province official website. Short biography of Solá.