Milei achieves support from the opposition so that his State reform law passes to Congress

The State reform law of the Argentine president, Javier Milei, will be voted on in the Chamber of Deputies for its approval or rejection. The initiative obtained a majority opinion, although with dissent, early this Wednesday. Part of the opposition has given the far-right the necessary support so that the project, with which Milei intends to modify a good part of the political, economic and social structure of the country, advances in the legislative process. This is a step that normally goes unnoticed on the path of laws to Parliament but that in recent weeks has had Argentines hooked.

The ruling is the key that the ruling party needs for its project to advance to Congress, where it is expected to begin to be discussed this Thursday. The original text, with more than 600 articles, has been partially modified despite the Government's initial position of not negotiating. A hundred points have disappeared and others have been modified after the Executive recognized drafting “errors” and addressed the “concerns” of some legislators. At the center, however, the economic program of the ultraliberal president remains and the law still contemplates controversial points such as the delegation of legislative powers to the Executive or limitations on protests. On the floor, legislators will address each article in particular and the project could fall there, where the ruling party is in the minority.

Argentina has been engaged in negotiations between the Government and the opposition in committees for almost three weeks. At nine o'clock this Tuesday night, the television channels began to broadcast the debate live. After more than five hours, the 115 legislators who made up the commissions voted. The ruling party obtained a majority opinion with 55 signatures (34 dissenting) from La Libertad Avanza, Milei's party; from the PRO, founded by former conservative president Mauricio Macri; from the center-right of the Radical Civic Union (UCR); from part of the We Make Federal Coalition block and from other spaces. The first minority opinion was that of the Peronist Union for the Homeland with 45 signatures and there were, in addition, four other minority opinions.

The Government sent the bill to Congress, which it called the Law of Bases and Starting Points for the Freedom of Argentines, at the end of December. While the news was known, tens of thousands of workers – more than 20,000 people, according to the organizers – were demonstrating in the streets to protest against another of Milei's measures, a decree of necessity and urgency that is in force, but accumulates dozens of protections in justice. This Wednesday's ruling was known hours before the unions once again raised another challenge to the Government in the streets with a general strike and mobilization called for this Wednesday. This time, against the bill that will be voted on in Congress in extraordinary sessions.

In the middle of the summer recess, legislators will now decide whether to approve or reject the initiative presented by the far-right and which has been modified due to complaints from the opposition. The omnibus law, so called because of its length and the variety of topics it addresses, declares the country in a “public emergency” and proposes measures that the Government and part of the opposition consider “important” for the country's economic recovery, which in December exceeded the 211.4% annual inflation. The executive includes measures such as the privatization of state companies, money laundering or the increase in the export tax. However, the text also includes measures that are considered accessory.

That has been one of the opposition's criticisms expressed during the debate in committees. “Many reforms are important but they do not address the emergency situation that the president has to resolve now and they merit a deeper discussion throughout the year,” said deputy Martín Tetaz, of the Radical Civic Union, and signed the opinion of most. On the other side were legislators who described the mamotreto as “unapproachable,” “horrible” or “invotable” and the discussion of the project as “insufficient.” “There has not been an area for reflection or time for debate. Citizen support is not a blank check to do anything,” said deputy Margarita Stolbizer.

During the days of debate, while a part of the Cabinet expressed its willingness to discuss “between what is necessary and what is appropriate,” the president attacked Congress to pressure the approval of the law. Milei has described the legislators as corrupt for trying to debate the project and his pressure has also reached the governors. “If the law is not approved, it will be worse for everyone, especially for the provinces,” said the president at the Cabinet meeting this Tuesday, according to what he reported in the national media. The position was endorsed at a press conference by his spokesperson, Manuel Adorni, who said that if the law does not go ahead “they will review the items” of the provinces.

A day before, a new text of the initiative had been released that eliminates more than a hundred articles from the megalaw and modifies others. These are some of the points that most worried the opposition. According to this draft, the delegation of legislative powers to the Executive for up to four years is limited to one year, the extension of which must be voted on in Congress; The oil company YPF, originally included within the law in a list of companies susceptible to privatization, disappears from the list; Since April, pensions will be updated monthly according to the Consumer Price Index and not by decree, as established in the first version of the initiative, and the Government is backtracking on its intention to close the National Fund for the Arts.

Hundreds of reforms or repeals proposed by the law, however, remain intact in the final text that will go to debate in the chamber. “The zero deficit is not negotiated,” warned the presidential spokesman, Manuel Adorni, this Tuesday. For some of the legislators who reject the text, the economic program proposed by the project continues to be “a disaster,” according to leftist representative Myriam Bregman, for whom “each article has the name and surname of a business lobby.” Others have emphasized criticizing the delegation of extraordinary powers to the Executive. “It is a very serious mistake to give more powers to this president who wants to run over everything,” said Germán Martínez, leader of the Peronist party of Unión por la Patria, who also criticized that the omnibus law “It harms retirees, productive sectors and provincial economies.”

The law is so broad that warnings and rejection have come from different sectors. Associations of environmental lawyers have assessed that, even with the changes, the law continues to represent “a clear environmental regression” with respect to current regulations and international standards. From cultural sectors, they have criticized, for example, the repeal of a law that unifies the retail price of books and protects bookstores from large chains. Many will express their demands in the mobilization called for this January 24 by the Argentine Confederation of Labor starting at noon (local time).

The Government will know if its law is approved or rejected in the Chamber of Deputies when the law is voted on in extraordinary sessions in the coming days. This Tuesday night, during the last hours of the debate, a deputy from La Libertad Avanza recalled the position of the Government led by Milei, who took office with his back to Congress and has shown his contempt for the cameras: “We do not believe that politics It is going to be the solution, we believe that the solution is the citizens. We need the State to take its foot off us Argentines, so that we can work, so that we can undertake.”

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