BUENOS AIRES.- He president of Argentina, Javier Milei, signed together with 18 governors (out of a total of 24) the so-called “May Pact”a set of ten commitments with which the current Government wants to establish a common roadmap, which especially includes the inviolability of private property, achieving fiscal balance and reducing public spending to below 25% of GDP.
“Argentina is at a turning point. “The turning points in a nation’s history are not moments of peace and tranquility. They are moments of difficulty and conflict, where everything seems to be going uphill. They are moments when the abyss becomes so clear that change becomes an obligation and an urgency,” he said in a speech after signing the document.
Milei thanked the members of the Government and the governors who traveled to Tucumán (a province in the northwest of the country) to sign the text: “After decades of swinging between antagonistic projects that have made us increasingly poorer, today we meet to renew our patriotic vows and sign what we have called the ‘May Pact,'” she said.
The president praised the fact that those attending the event had heeded the call “made to them by the Argentine people, who listened from their homes and who last year demanded a profound change of direction.” “That this is possible today in Argentina after so much division is undoubtedly the symbol of a change of era”said Milei, who recently got Congress to approve the Ley Bases, which includes his economic reform plan, and which crowned him with his first political victory in the seven months he has been in office.
But the Argentine president also questioned the political, social and union leaders who did not sign the pact.
“In some cases (it was) because their ideological blinders make us ignore the root of Argentina’s failure. In others, out of fear or shame for having persisted in the error for so long. And in many cases, out of stubbornness in not wanting to give up the privileges that the old order offered them,” he said.
He stressed that “it is no coincidence that among the latter are those who have tried or are trying daily to boycott this government and conspire to make it fail.” “They are addicted to the system because their personal interests are diametrically opposed to those of ordinary people. And they know, although they do not admit it, that they progress at the expense of the Argentines as a whole doing worse and worse,” said Milei.
The former president attended the event Mauricio Macri (2015-2019), while among the notable absences was the vice president, Victoria Villarruel, who is ill. Among the guests who did not attend were former presidents Cristina Kirchner (2007-2015) y Alberto Fernandez (2019-2023), and the governor of Buenos Aires, the opposition Axel Kicillof.
“He already has the laws, and now he also has the May Pact. It is time to govern and show results,” said a provincial leader, reported La Nación.
The governor’s comment is related to the provinces’ demands for funds to undertake public works. It was reported that the governors who attended the event do not see any assurance from the central government that they will be compensated for agreeing to sign the May Pact.
Although the governors stressed that Milei’s speech was “moderate,” they are not sure that their complaints will be addressed. “I don’t know if they are very grateful,” said another governor.
Source: With information from Europa Press / La Nación