A few hours ago, Mr. Javier Gerardo Milei, recent president, sat in the center of a table located in the solar center of the Argentine democratic system, the White Room of the Casa Rosada, and shit on democracy.
Around the table, sitting and standing, were 13 individuals. There were eleven men and two women: the president, his ministers and other acolytes. From that rococo furniture, crystals and gilding, Mr. Milei made a brief introduction where he explained that there is “a doctrine that has cost the lives of millions of human beings, which some could call left, socialism, fascism, communism, and that We like to classify it as collectivism, which is a form of thought that dilutes the individual in favor of the power of the State.” And that our country “which at the beginning of the 20th century was the first world power”—he said, insisting on his lie and without even getting a stocking sucker to take pity on him and explain that it is called “the first power”—is now in the ruin, he said, and enumerated with delight and a few fallacies the data – tremendous – of the current crisis. And that is why, he said, “today I have signed a decree of necessity and urgency to begin to unblock this oppressive legal framework that has destroyed our country.”
In other words: he issued a “Decree of Necessity and Urgency” that would change dozens of laws. The Decrees of Necessity and Urgency – DNU – are a constitutional mechanism designed to face specific, urgent situations, where there is no time to comply with the legal steps: natural or social catastrophes, unforeseen events that require an extraordinary and immediate response.
Furthermore, DNUs are designed to address a specific problem; This one, on the other hand, includes 366 measurements: it is a leap DNU. Among many provisions, the prohibition on the State intervening to control the prices of food and other essential items stands out; the repeal of the Rent Law so that owners can increase without limits; the repeal of the law that prevented the privatization of public companies; the conversion of these companies into public limited companies; the conversion of football clubs into public limited companies; a regulation of the right to strike that makes it almost impossible; the extension of the “trial” period of workers and other facilities for dismissing them; the possibility of hiring freelancers for years without establishing any employment relationship; the elimination of fines for companies that have black employees; the deregulation of the working day and the disappearance of overtime; the repeal of the law that prevented foreigners from purchasing large areas of land; the annulment of several laws promoting national industry and commerce; authorization for foreign airlines to make internal flights; the possibility of making contracts in any currency; the liberalization of prices for prepaid medicine and other insurance; the elimination of generic prescriptions; the deregulation of satellite internet services that Elon Musk had requested – and so on until completing 300 similar provisions.
It is not about discussing them one by one. Not even to debate their general orientation: it is very clear that they intend to take away from the State any possibility of regulation and protection of the weakest, and allow employers to have all the power in their relationship with their workers: the Market, the law of jungle.
Serious as it is, the most serious thing is not that: it is the fact that a man imposes a number of measures through his genitals that he has no right to decide. The vast majority of these regulations depend on laws that, as such, must be proposed and approved by elected legislators. And they cannot be modified at the stroke of a pen by anyone else. Or, at least, that is what the Argentine Constitution and, in general, the mechanisms of democracies say.
Mr. Milei's DNU will come into force in seven days and will remain in place until it is repealed by the two legislative chambers. For this there is a protocol that requires extraordinary sessions to be called and, above all, there should be political will.
Right now it is not known how many deputies and senators agree or disagree with the measures, but that does not matter: they should oppose, on principle, to restore the certainty that it is the Legislative Branch that legislates, that it is not enough for a president and his boys decide that they are going to change half of the country's legal system just because they felt like it. That when a president and his boys think something they have to debate it with that other power that society voted to represent and defend it. If they don't do it, it is likely that many Argentines will take over and defend themselves in the streets: it will be more complicated, more violent. And, if they do not do so, we would have to conclude that the Legislative Branch is useless: if its own members accept it, it is collective suicide.
That, unlike any good suicide, it would not only kill those who commit it, but everyone: not only the legislators but Argentine democracy. Which is not the best, of course, since it has committed countless disasters. But no one can reach the idea that a man can manipulate hundreds of laws because they sing to him: that would be the great collective harakiri of that country that we call—did we call?—Argentine Republic.
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