2024-02-28 10:38:30
The Federal Justice ordered the national government to cease withholding federal co-participation funds from the province of Chubut, while urging the parties to start a negotiation. In a press conference with his Patagonian counterparts, the governor of the province, Ignacio Torres, declared the dispute “settled” and annulled the force measure to close the oil plants to which the governor of Tierra del Fuego Gustavo Melella. Despite the conciliatory phrases, The issue will continue to escalate in the courts, since the National Government announced that it will appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.
In the followingnoon, the heads of the Patagonian districts sThey were shown in a unit photo during a press conference held in the Blue Room of the National Congress.
In addition to Torres, the governors of La Pampa Sergio Ziliotto were present; from Río Negro, Alberto Weretilneck; from Neuquén, Rolando Figueroa. Meanwhile, the one from Santa Cruz, Claudio Vidal, participated via zoom. He was absent but the president of Tierra del Fuego, Gustavo Melella, sent his support.
When opening the presentation, Torres lowered the tone of the confrontation and called for political “unity” and “the generation of consensus” both between the Nation and provinces and in Congress. At the same time, he asked the government for “humility” to sit down and listen to the interior of the country.”
“We do not want more sterile fights or aggression and let us not fall into lack of respect,” the Chubut native stressed.
For its part, Ziliotto highlighted the value of the court’s ruling by maintaining that it is a “triumph of federalism.”
At your turn, Vidal demanded that the government stop “media violence” and asked that “a dialogue table be convened.”
In the same sense, Figueroa stressed that “The path we are willing to continue traveling is that of dialogue and work,” while admitting that “we are clear that the State must be ordered.”
“It is clear that what we intend is to be heard and listen. Patagonia is generous with the country, we produce much of the country’s oil, gas and energy. When it comes to contributing, we do it with pleasure, but when it comes to receiving, we pay for more expensive energy and transportation.”said Figueroa in reference to the disparities in the distribution of national resources.
“We are clear that the State must be ordered, that spending must be ordered. We have reduced the political plant. We share that there are certain expenses that must be eliminated”, he detailed in response to the libertarian administration’s request to “adjust.” And he added as examples the elimination of privileged retirements and the replacement of the social plan system, implemented by the Government of Neuquén in recent weeks.
Weretilneck joined the requests of his colleagues and invited the president to participate in the first session of the Patagonian Parliament which will take place on March 7 in Puerto Madryn.
“We feel what happened with Chubut as Patagonians, that’s why the reaction,” opened Weretilneck. “The Río Negro spirit is dialogue, there is no Nation without provinces and there are no provinces without the Nation,” he stressed.
Weretilneck closed his speech by pondering the meeting of the Patagonian Parliament on March 7, where the issues on the regional agenda – tourism, mining, fishing – will be analyzed. “We are all going to be there and we want to invite the president, who will be well received by the Patagonians in Chubut”the Rio Negro slipped.
For his part, Torres added that so far they have not received any call from the national government to sit down and talk. Likewise, he said that at today’s meeting The issue of support or rejection of Decree 70/2023, which will be debated in the National Senate, was not discussed.
In this bid the national government He found a surprising ally in the governor of Tucumán Osvaldo Jaldo, who assured that “Torres did not tell the truth” in his statements to the Nation. The Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, reposted a note with this statement.
The court ruling
The measure was taken by Judge Hugo Ricardo Sastre in charge of the Rawson Federal Court No. 1.
In the first point of the Resolution, Sastre provided the “cessation of withholding as reimbursements for loans agreed upon within the framework of the Trust Fund for Provincial Development that the defendant has been making on sums that the defendant must receive as Federal Tax Co-participation.
This measure will be in force until “the refinancing of the debt is completed and for the maximum period included in the current financial year.”
In the second point he urged the parties to “arbitrate conducive means aimed at the cancellation and/or refinancing of the debt under reasonable conditions that do not involve the commitment of essential services of the provincial state.”
In the third point of the Sastre Resolution rejected Chubut’s request that the national state return the more than $13 billion withheld last week.
Among his arguments, the judge maintained that “since the National State has financially assisted an outgoing Provincial Government, it should all the more reason support and make its policy of sanitation and refinancing of provincial public debts more flexible – an action that would have been applied to the province in the recent past. , only twelve months ago -, especially when the regulatory framework has not changed either.” Sastre recalled that “The province of Chubut had requested the refinancing of its debt” and stressed that the “national government ignored or remained silent in the face of the request.”
The judge recognized that in a process in which a province is litigating once morest the National State, intervention is exclusive of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation. However, he justified his intervention: “There would not only be regulations of federal content at stake, since in turn, in order to make the trust fund effective, local law regulations would have been issued.”
Milei, far from conciliating
For his part, President Javier Milei ordered the appeal of the ruling to be processed and the option of requesting a per saltum from the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation to be studied. The government’s intention is for the judge to grant the appeal so that in this way the case passes to the Federal Chamber of Comodoro Rivadavia, with which Sastre’s measure is suspended and the withholding of the funds might continue.
Prior to the meeting of governors, President Javier Milei redoubled the bet once morest the provincial leaders with a very harsh post in X: “We are facing one of the most wonderful moments in our history, where it is possible to see the political caste wallowing in misery and appealing to all kinds of lies to defend their privileges and thus burden the costs of their delusions on good Argentines.”
Nation reduced discretionary shipments by 94% in February
Discretionary transfers from the national government to the provinces They were reduced 94% in February, which fuels the growing tension between President Javier Milei and the governors.
The Ministry of Economy It only transferred $8,484 million to subnational states, which represents a 94% decrease compared to the same month last year ($36,377 million).
The accrued expense (that is, it was computed but not paid) It amounts to a total of $26,483.4 million, 76.7% less than in February 2023.
This implies that there is a floating debt in favor of the provinces of (already recognized by the central Executive but not canceled) of $ 18,000 million.
The data corresponds to a report by the consulting firm Politikón Chaco based on official data as of February 23. Although there are still four days left in the calculation,The figures show that Milei maintained the same levels of pruning of provinces as in January.
The Government indicated that for the moment It is not planned to make any general call to the governors, which distances the possibility of direct dialogue.
“Discretionary transfers are going to disappear at this time in Argentina in which there are no resources and where the premise of zero deficit is immovable,” Presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni insisted today.
In the breakdown of the items, extreme situations are seen, such as what is happening with Tierra del Fuego, which until last Friday had not received a single peso from the national government. In this context, the Fuegian president, Gustavo Melella announced that tomorrow he will paralyze oil production for 24 hours in support of the claim of the province of Chubut.
- $ 331.247
- million was the budget of the National Teacher Incentive Fund (Fonid) in 2023, not renewed in January by Milei.
A similar situation is observed in La Rioja, where the governor, Ricardo Quintela, announced the creation of its own currency for payment to the state and called on creditors to restructure their debt. In February Milei authorized a transfer of just $1 million, when a year ago he had obtained $2,629 million. The curious fact is that of Chubut, which according to the reportthe Executive paid him $1,500.8 million, practically the total amount accrued ($1,570 million) through a National Treasury Advance (ATN) for $1,000 million sent on February 6.
These figures correspond to items managed by the national government based on a series of laws and agreements, but which must have the approval of the Minister of Economy on duty. This sharp reduction has its strongest explanation in the suspension of the Fonid (National Teacher Incentive Fund) which in 2023 had a budget of $331,247 million. The discretionary transfers to provinces carried out by the Alberto Fernández government during 2023 reached $1,934,885 million, which is equivalent to 1.01% of GDP, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Río Negro, among the provinces most affected by the Fonid cut
According to data from the Congressional Budget Office (OPC), Fonid earned $46,855 million in January, which has not yet beenor they were sent to the provinces and consequently form part of the floating debt (the elimination of the FONID was following the accrual period).
The situation in Río Negro is one of the most serious since only $1.6 million was sent from the Nation until February 23s, 99.9% less in the interannual comparison. The amount accrued is $7 million and only $5.4 million would remain to be received in February.
In the case of Córdoba, the province received just $40.4 million, which represents a 99.4% drop compared to what it had received a year ago. Mendoza was credited with $14.1 million, 99.6% less than in February 2023.
Among the most affected provinces is also Catamarca, which received only $5 million, once morest $542 million last year and an accrual of $27.5 million.
Another of the axes of the conflict is the province of Buenos Aires, where in February the Economy sent $5,339 million, which represents a real decrease (discounting inflation) of 84.2%. However, The accrual is $19.6 billion, which implies a balance in favor of Axel Kicillof of regarding $14.0 billion.
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