Argentine retirees march against Milei’s veto

Faced with the imminent veto that Javier Milei will give to the increase in pension benefits, retirees are calling for a rally for this Wednesday in front of the Congress annex and will later march to the Plaza de Mayo. The protest was defined in a plenary session that brought together about thirty of its organizations. They are also calling on union, social, student and neighborhood organizations.

“The increase that the government opposes is very small, it is 17 thousand pesos that does not solve the problems that retirees have; Even so, we have to prevent it from being vetoed,” said Marcos Wolman, from the National Coordinating Table of Retiree and Pensioner Organizations of the Argentine Republic.

Wolman believes, as in all retiree groups, that “the Government is leading to the defunding of the pension system.” “His plan is to march towards the privatization of the system, we saw it in the Bases Law, in the DNU and in the May Pact, which proposes a pension reform. The privatization of pensions, returning to the model that failed in the ’90s, is not only a Milei issue, but part of a trend in all Latin American countries: yesterday there was a mobilization in Peru and in Uruguay they are holding a plebiscite.”

Since Milei’s arrival to the presidency, retiree groups became active, anticipating that something like this would happen. With the adjustment, the historical organizations reacted but new groups were also formed.

The slogan of the march is No to Milei and Macri’s veto on retirement mobility.

Retiree organizations are also promoting the signature campaign against the adjustment of the pension system. “It is important that society finds out how the Government is defunding retirements. Pension contributions are decreasing, they take the tax out of the PAIS dollar, which 60 percent went to ANSES and another 10 percent to PAMI. The increase in unemployment and black labor also defunds the system, because the number of contributing workers for each retiree decreases. All this is happening while the minimum retirement covers barely a third of the poverty basket,” added Wolman.