BUENOS AIRES.- The Senate of Argentinawhere the ruling party is at a great disadvantage, began this Tuesday the debate in committees of the reform package of economic deregulation known as “Bases Law”driven by president, Javier Milei, and which was approved by the Chamber of Deputies in April.
The Minister of the Interior, Guillermo Francos, led the plenary meeting of the General Legislation, Constitutional Affairs and Budget commissions and, together with other Executive officials, defended the rule against questions and challenges from opposition senators.
In the Senate, the ruling party has seven senators out of a total of 72 and faces a base of 33 Peronist senators who are expected to vote against.
He political scientist Andrés Malamud He pointed out that “the Senate is more difficult than the Deputies because the government bench is smaller (10% instead of 15%), the Kirchnerism bench is larger and Martín Lousteau, from the Radical Civic Union (UCR, center), complicates the agreements woven with the other radicals”.
If one or more chapters are rejected or modified, the law must return to the Chamber of Deputies.
During the meeting, Lousteau and other senators from the UCR, a key bloc in deciding the vote, questioned several chapters of the law, especially the tax, customs and exchange incentive regime for large investments and the pension reform that, among others, things, eliminates universal access to minimum retirement.
Milei is urgent
On Tuesday morning, a controversy had begun, when opposition legislators denounced that the text that entered the Senate did not coincide with the one approved by the deputies, and asked that the communication be annulled.
Asked about the topic, the presidential spokesperson, Manuel Adorniacknowledged minutes later that there was a “typing error” and later an “errata” was sent to the senators with corrections to the articles, which were described as “funny stuff” by Peronist senator Silvia Sapag during the meeting.
The ruling party intends to obtain the commission’s opinion this week and the green light from the Senate next week, although the opposition requested a “reasonable time” to discuss the rule.
The government is urgent because it wants to have the law approved before May 25, the day Milei called on the entire political spectrum to sign a ten-point “social contract”, including the “inviolable” defense of private property and the “non-negotiable” fiscal balance.
Source: With information from AFP
