2024-02-03 12:02:53
On the third day of a debate full of tension, the Chamber of Deputies generally approved the Omnibus Lawbut went to an intermediate room to vote in particular because the alliances were reached at the limit of the negotiations and with a key support from governorswith whom the national government maintains an open discussion regarding the sending of funds.
The project of President Javier Milei received 144 votes in favor, from La Libertad Avanza, the PRO, the bulk of We Make the Federal Coalition, Federal Innovation and other minority forces; and 109 votes against Unión por la Patria, the Left Front, the Socialist Party, and some surprises from the blocs supporting the ruling party.
However, does not have all the votes for the particular treatment. This was demonstrated with the fourth intermission until Tuesday. Negotiations continue and there are some key points.
One of the turns of last moment emerged from radical space led by Rodrigo De Loredo, since the doctor Facundo Manes and Pablo Juliano chose to oppose the law. There were also fissures in the bloc led by Miguel Pichetto (We Make the Federal Coalition), with the dissidents that were already known from the Santa Fe socialists Mónica Fein and Esteban Paulón, the Córdoban Natalia De la Sota, and Margarita Stolbizer (GEN), who He had signed his own opinion.
The legislators of the Civic Coalitionby Elisa Carrio, and the Cordoba who respond to Governor Martín Llaryora, who pressed until the last moment for the Government to open the door to negotiate on the country tax article, They expressed themselves in favor.
However, key support came from the provinces, including Río Negro and Neuquén that with different discursive strategies accompanied the project in general. According to the regional authorities, it was after achieving changes in issues such as fishing, hydrocarbons and the maintenance of the “cold zone” for gas.
The fact is that with only 38 deputies, The ruling party needed a network of accessions that reached the entire interior of the country. They achieved the support of the governors closest to the Casa Rosada, such as the radicals Alfredo Cornejo (Mendoza), Gustavo Valdés (Corrientes), Maximiliano Pullaro (Santa Fe) or Rogelio Frigerio (Entre Ríos), Ignacio Torres (Chubut), the who joined those from San Juan, San Luis, Misiones, Salta, Neuquén and Río Negro.
It was known before accession of the legislators of Tucumán who respond to Osvaldo Jaldo. The governor of Santa Cruz, Caludio Vidal, did not achieve unity for his two legislators to accompany the initiative. And the oilman from Chubut, Jorge “Loma” Ávila, was one of the three absent.
Omnibus Law: voting with pressure
The text was really weak: Of the 525 articles in the ruling, only 363 remained standing. for the withdrawal of the fiscal chapter, the deregulation of fishing and modifications to the Penal Code, among other issues. Whether more articles or entire segments do not fall in the particular vote will depend on the agreements that the Government reaches, such as privatization and culture.
Once the initiative is approved, went to an intermission room until Tuesday to begin the discussion of the articles, which represent the strongest bid between the Government and the “dialogue” opposition. “They did not dare to enter the vote in particular until they had agreements on the three or four main issues,” interpreted one of the protagonists of the negotiations.
The debate was closed amid renewed pressure from the Casa Rosada. “It is time for the representatives of the people to decide if they are on the side of the freedom of Argentines or on the side of the privileges of the caste and the corporate republic,” was the message from Javier Milei through the account of the Office of the President.
From the premises, De Loredo reaffirmed his position despite the threats. “None of our political definitions depend on the insults or applause you give us. We do not apologize to them either. I have no admiration for the figure of the president. But the presidential investiture has all my respect. And all the insults, grievances and humiliations have happened for a reason,” said the head of the radical bloc.
Next, his peer from the PRO block, Cristian Ritondo, reinforced: “We are neither government nor co-government. We came with the responsibility of giving this government a toolbox so that it can solve the problems that populism created. The change has to begin, and it is now.”
The negotiations for the Omnibus Law: what happened to the Anses Sustainability Guarantee Fund and the PAIS tax
“If (Guillermo) Francos doesn’t come, we won’t vote,” was heard on Hacemos Coalión Federal. Deputies from the Pichetto bloc, the PRO and the UCR “took over” the office of the president of the lower house, Martín Menem, who came and went from the premises. The “dialogueists” wanted to continue negotiating changes to the project with the Minister of the Interior, who finally attended but only spoke with a few.
Los five deputies from Llaryora (Carlos Gutiérrez, Ignacio García Aresca, Juan Brügge, Alejandra Torres and Natalia De la Sota) and the head of the local PRO, Oscar Agost Carreño (all members of the We Make Federal Coalition bloc, chaired by Pichetto) conveyed a strong message to Menem.
The people of Cordoba demanded that the ANSES Sustainability Guarantee Fund (FGS) guarantees the flow of payments from the Nation to pension funds not transferred that harmonized their criteria with those of the Nation, such as Córdoba and Santa Fe. Otherwise, they threatened to gather the votes to share 30% of what was collected by the PAIS tax, a measure to which the Government, for the moment, he resists.
The Omnibus Law was approved in general without the numerous articles that made up the fiscal package with the exception of article 180, where it is clarified that the COUNTRY tax (which taxes foreign currency purchase operations to pay for purchases abroad) is valid until December 22 of this year.
On the third day of taking office, Milei increased the PAIS tax rate from 7.5% to 17.5%. 30% of this tax is destined to finance socio-urban works through the National Registry of Popular Neighborhoods (Renabap). The Governors demand from Francos that this percentage be allocated directly to co-participationfor the provinces to administer.
The reimplantation and co-participation of the PAIS tax in the “omnibus law” was the exclusive topic of the frenetic meetings in Menem’s offices. It even blocked progress on other important aspects of the project, such as privatizations, where the Government’s counterproposal does not fully conform to the UCR.
Omnibus Law: did privatizations decrease?
Government agreed to reduce the number of companies to be privatized from 36 to 27 (until last night the complete list was not exactly known), but they continue to appear in annexes, which prevents separate voting. “Canning is still a problem,” they said at the UCR.
In the block headed by De Loredo they also ask that the equity report of each company subject to privatization that must be sent to the Bicameral Privatization Monitoring Commission and is prepared by the General Audit Office of the Nation (AGN) to guarantee impartiality.
He Radicalism also proposes applying a mechanism of “transparency and open government” for privatizations. similar to that established with the National Administration’s contracting regime regulated by decree in 2016.
What happens with delegated powers and the Omnibus Law
Another core issue of the project that remains between question marks is the delegation of powers to the president. They were cut to six: economic, financial, security, tariffs, energy and administrative. However, in the similar opposition there are several rejections (led by the Civic Coalition) and the article, which is the first, is in danger of being rejected and generating an adverse climate for the rest of the vote in particular.
“This block is not ready to vote on delegated powers that will transform Milei into superpower.”emphasized towards the end of the debate the head of Unión por la Patria, Germán Martínez, and concluded: “With economic policy, with the mega DNU, with this omnibus law where even opponents become pro-government supporters, a plan is underway of national dissolution, of dissolution of federalism and the rules of democracy that we are not going to tolerate.”
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