2024-03-14 16:49:00
The session in Senators to discuss DNU 70/23 was scheduled for 11. In the middle of the tension between Javier Milei and Victoria Villarruel, the expectation had grown regarding who would provide a quorum and what the positions would be. In this context, the president suspended the usual meeting with his ministers and secretaries that he usually leads every Tuesday and Thursday. Furthermore, spokesman Manuel Adorni emphasized that there was “no problem” between the leaders: “if they want to invent an internal one, they are not going to achieve it.” The conference was given at the same time as the beginning of the session:
He quorum was given by 45 senators, while there were 27 absent and 22 “unidentified.” The session began with tributes and a minute of silence for Graciela Perossa, wife of the provisional president of the Senate Bartolomé Esteban Abdala, former senator Diana Conti and José María “Tati” Vernet, first governor of Santa Fe, who died recently.
In the early hours of the followingnoon the issue of retirement mobility reached the Senate from the national senator Martin Lousteau, who presented a preference motion to address two files on the subject.
“Until now, retirees with the existing formula and depending on the inflation that the current Government increased, have lost 1 in every 4 pesos of purchasing power,” explained the senator, who added: “Not only that, there is also a modification circulating to the update that just when it is going to benefit retirees, they want to change it, stealing an entire quarter of adjustment, from three months of high inflation.”
At the beginning of the session there were questions of privilege regarding current issues. one was the Malvinas cause: «we have only seen inactions and provocations. The Malvinas are not for sale, we defend them«said the national senator for Tierra del Fuego of Unión por la Patria, María Eugenia Duré, in questioning the national government.
At the same time, national media announced that Milei settled in the Government House to continue the debate. He also transcended the draft of the new Omnibus Law, with which the support of the provincial leaders would be sought through their representatives on the benches. The modifications are part of the agreement that is being negotiated to sign the “May Pact”, proposed by Javier Milei, offering tax relief to the provinces in exchange for votes for the regulations, formally called “Bases Law.”
All the economic consequences that we have had since December 10 and that affected the people are a consequence of the DNU. #DNU #Senate https://t.co/xSJ7Q6LVFT
— Oscar Parrilli (@OscarParrilli) March 14, 2024
As a Rio Negro, in defense of my province and Patagonia I am going to vote to reject the unconstitutional DNU 70/2023.
Why is it necessary to reject it? Because this DNU is responsible for releasing the prices of food, electricity, gas, gasoline,…
— Martin Donate (@martindonate) March 14, 2024
Villarruel defies Milei’s pressure and leaves the DNU on the brink of rejection
By Carolina Ramos
The internal relationship between Javier Milei and Victoria Villarruel stopped being a secret and became more exposed than ever. The president publicly demanded to stop the treatment of DNU 70/23 in the Senate and his followers carried out an intense campaign on the networks, but his vice president defied the pressure: keeps the session called for this Thursday at 11 a.m. and will put the “megadecree” to a vote, which is on the verge of rejection.
Last night, the Minister of the Interior, Guillermo Francosand the Chief of Staff, Santiago Caputothey punished their cell phones by calling different governors, seeking to convince their senators to avoid the vote, which might be a major political defeat for the Government.
Villarruel made the decision to hold a session following a meeting of Parliamentary Labor with block heads in the offices on the first floor of the Upper House. According to him, he was able to reconstruct this environment, The vice president proposed to the senators to postpone the treatment of the DNU, but there was no consensus and finally he acknowledged that he might not continue delaying the issue.
“He understood that, sooner or later, he had to face the situation,” said a participant in the meeting. The head of the Senate had ignored four requests for a Union for the Homeland session and provincial, but the last request was signed by 40 senators and it is not unknown that La Libertad Avanza has only seven members. Therefore, the DNU blocks agreements for other laws.
In the middle of the Labor meeting, a very harsh statement from the President’s Office broke out where Milei expresses “his concern regarding the unilateral decision of some sectors of the political class that intend to advance with their own and unconsulted agenda, in order to hinder negotiations and dialogue between the different sectors of the political leadership.” “Both the hasty treatment of DNU 70/23 and the initiative to promote a retirement formula without consensus violate the spirit of the agreement promoted by the president in his call for the May Pact,” the document says.
Furthermore, he warns that “the potential rejection of the DNU, which is currently close to a definition by the Supreme Court of Justice, would entail a serious setback in the rights and needs of the Argentine peopleimplying, for example, the return of the rental law, the return to the rigid system of union social works, the maintenance of the corrupt model of the Automotive Registries and the political annulment of open skies, among others.
In a paragraph that appears to be directly addressed to Villarruel, it is stated that “the national government hopes that the Legislative Branch does not allow itself to be captivated by the siren song of those who intend to ‘score’ short-term victories to the detriment of the future of the 45 million Argentines.”
Finally, Milei thanks “those legislators who, committed to the interests of the Homeland and the path of change, they do not lend themselves to perverse games of those who have deliberately decided to hinder the development of the Nation.”
The relationship with Villarruel was suffering due to the 30% increase in legislators’ allowances. Until the last minute, the head of the upper house resisted signing the joint resolution with Martín Menem to roll back the increase, until she had no other option.
At yesterday’s meeting Villarruel did not hide his discomfort at the statement, but decided to continue with the session, which will start at 11 with the treatment of three international agreements, a formal authorization for Milei to leave the country, a project to combat money laundering, and finally the DNU of economic deregulation.
In Unión por la Patria they claim to have guaranteed the votes to overturn the decree, which must then go to Deputies. The 33 senators led by José Mayans are already in Buenos Aires, standing firm. They need only four more votes to score the “victory” that Milei does not want.
Some of those votes might arise from provincial spaces: Edgardo Kueider from Entre Ríos, Carlos “Camau” Espínola from Corrientes and Mónica Silva from Rio Negro are once morest the decree. Alejandra Vigo from Córdoba keeps her vote strictly confidential; Yesterday, Martín Llaryora’s deputies denied a quorum to debate retirement mobility.
The role of radicalism, which is divided, will be key, then. The bloc does not have a unified position and there is speculation regarding the rejection of senators such as Pablo Blanco from Fuegian and even Martín Lousteau himself, who this week promoted a statement from the National Committee with winks once morest the DNU.
A broken relationship
The statement from the presidency harshly attacking the call for sessions in the Senate whitewashed an internal dispute between the president and his vice that was born almost from the beginning of the administration.
At the beginning of the libertarian government, Villarruel intended to build strength in security and the Armed Forces, a chance deactivated when Milei agreed with Patricia Bullrich to appoint him to the Ministry of Security.
Confined to the Upper House, the vice president managed to reach a first agreement with other minority forces to displace Kirchnerism in the authorities of the body and the main commissions. However, this dialogue profile was torpedoed by the president when, following the failure of the Omnibus Law, he decided to confront legislators and governors in harsh terms. Senate sources indicated that Villarruel no longer had room to refuse to call a session, under penalty of being criminally denounced, an extreme that he seemed to want to avoid, regardless of the presidential anger.
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