A comprehensive reform package from the Argentine president, Javier Mileitook a first step this Friday with the “general” approval of the deputies who, after a marathon debate accompanied by protests and incidents in front of Congress, will continue to debate it point by point from Tuesday.
At the end of the third day of sitting, the House of Commons agreed to the so-called “Omnibus Law“by 144 to 109, with 38 votes from the ruling minority and the support of allied and opposition forces with whom he negotiated until he reduced the original project by half.
“The spirit is to accompany the government and the president so that they have the tools,” said Miguel Pichetto, leader of a mixed group crucial to approval.
Shortly before the vote, I published a text calling on lawmakers to end the debate. Milei published on the X network: “Today you have the opportunity to show which side of history you want to be on.”
The vote is a political victory for the president, although the project still needs to be debated “article by article,” there may be changes and then go to the Senate, where the ruling minority hopes for new alliances.
The mega law involves granting superpowers or delegated powers to Milei so that he rules by decree, arranges the sale of public companies, takes on foreign debt without parliamentary approval, and deregulated all economic activities, among other reforms of his self-defined “anarcho-capitalist” ideology.
Delegated powers and borrowing
Much of the discussion focused on “delegated powers,” which opponents say means “granting the sum of public power,” as well as privatizations and the assumption of foreign debt without congressional approval.
Opposition MP Máximo Kirchner recalled that the current Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, was an official of former President Mauricio Macri (2015-2019) when Argentina negotiated a $44,000 million loan with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
And Caputo “went to the bicameral debt commission with almost the same phrases that he says now about restoring confidence in the world,” warned the son of former presidents Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
“We Argentines already know what happens when the economic model relies on adjustment and deregulation,” warned opposition MP Leandro Santoro, recalling the adjustments that triggered the economic and social crisis of 2001.
Several opposition MPs said they had not seen a copy of the final version agreed by the ruling party after laborious negotiations.
“We have two clear options,” read the party’s MP Lorena Villaverde Milei Freedom Advances: “To become the largest slum in the world or to continue on this path toward prosperity and freedom.”
Rubber bullets and gases
On Thursday, hundreds of demonstrators opposing reforms at the doors of Congress were suppressed by police with rubber bullets, gas and water tanks until the area was empty.
“These were excesses,” said one of the leaders of the ruling party, José Luis Espert, in response to the security forces’ crackdown in which dozens of people were injured, according to AFP.
Presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni reported Friday that eight people were arrested in the incidents and seven officers were injured as a result of “the acts of violence.”
Militarized police forces had expected to apply a protocol with strict restrictions on street rallies drawn up by Milei and his security minister Patricia Bullrich.
“There was a small moment of tension,” Bullrich told reporters, claiming Argentinians needed a “cultural change” to end “the takeover of the streets.”
Settings in progress
Milei has already issued a mega-decree changing hundreds of norms and laws to use sweeping deregulation to reverse a crisis that is keeping more than 45% of Argentines in poverty, with annual inflation reaching 211% in 2023.
Previously, the ultra-liberals had pushed for a 50% devaluation of the peso and the liberalization of all prices in the economy, which accelerated inflation to 25.5% in December.
Milei It also revived the $44 billion lending program with the IMF, which praised these initial adjustments but predicted a 2.8% recession in Argentina’s economy in 2024.
On Wednesday, the fund approved the disbursement of $4.7 billion – to pay off its own debts – in support of the “bold actions” of Mileialthough he warned that “the path to stabilization will be difficult.”
SPRING: AFP