The advance of the ruling party with the impeachment to the Supreme Court through the approval of admissibility is a key element of your strategy to wear down the judges of the highest court, but at the same time it distances it a little more from the possibility of approving in the Chamber of Deputies the economic projects that the Government sent for extraordinary sessions.
The approval of the admissibility report implies that the investigation summary is opened and the evidence production stage begins against the judges Horacio Rosatti, Carlos Rosenkrantz, Ricardo Lorenzetti and Juan Carlos Maqueda, whom the Frente de Todos accuses, under the figure of “bad performance”, of failing successively politically motivated against the government and play in tandem with the opposition.
The Frente de Todos took that step in the Impeachment Commission this Thursday thanks to its majority of 16 members out of 31 after a strong discussion with Together for Changewhich presented an “in limine” rejection of the files against the judges and accused the ruling party of declaring “war against the Constitution” and do “harm to democracy”.
In this way, the pro-government bench achieved one of the objectives set for the extraordinary sessions at the risk of sacrificing another: that of overcoming the virtual blockade that Together for Change imposes on it with its refusal to provide a quorum while the impeachment proceeds and hold at least one session to deal with projects like pension moratorium and the monotributo tech.
And it is these days that the Frente de Todos tries to agree with other minority blocks to gather a quorum and be able to meet next week. However, So far, it does not reach the 129 required presences, according to parliamentary sources slipped to iProfessional and the new step in the commission, which allows it, among other things, to start summoning witnesses, removes the possibility that Together for Change will review its position.
Impeachment vs. economic laws: will the ruling party be able to hold a session?
Congress suffers a legislative paralysisAt least since November. The worst situation occurs in Deputies. The Frente de Todos blames Juntos por el Cambio for not giving a quorum to any debate and the main opposition party accuses the ruling party of generating this stoppage with its insistence on an agenda that, in its opinion, tries to “discipline Justice” to seek “the impunity” of Vice President Cristina Kirchner in her cases.
The ruling party advances with the summary against the judges of the Court and thus ratifies the fight with the opposition
Sources from the opposition interblock told this medium that in recent weeks some of its legislators proposed indoors soften your posture so that the Chamber of Deputies can once again approve projects and laws in the compound. However, with the new trailer on impeachment this possibility loses ground.
In this context, there is an internal debate in Together for Change but the majority position so far is to go to the commissions, discuss the projects, but let the ruling party achieve a quorum without the help of the main opposition caucus, at least until the regular session begins on March 1.
The Frente de Todos began in January to find a way to overcome this resistance. He tried to convince some of his peers to join Together for Change, without success. With their 117 deputies (not counting the president of the Chamber, Cecilia Moreau), needs perfect assistance and the support of the 4 legislators from the Leftthe 4 from United Provinces and the 2 deputies from the SER block and the MPN, who usually accompany them. But still would not arrive.
That’s why he looks for the support of the Federal Interblock, the bench of 8 deputies whose main references are Graciela Camaño and Alejandro “Topo” Rodríguez in order to meet next week. I would need at least half of them to sit in the room, if they have all the other supports.
Camano sent a positive signal to the ruling party weeks ago, when assuring that she does not want to “paralyze Congress in the adverse context” that the country has. However, she later revealed that the feds are asking, to collaborate with the quorum, that there be a minimum agreement between the Frente de Todos and Juntos por el Cambio.
What are the economic projects at stake?
The interest of the Frente de Todos bench is to be able to move forward with at least one or two of the twenty initiatives that President Alberto Fernández included on the agenda for the extraordinary sessions that end on February 28. The priority is the new payment plan for people of retirement and pre-retirement age who do not have 30 years of contributions. There is a strong insistence from the deputies and the Executive on this issue, under the warning that some 800,000 people would be left out of the pension system. Together for Change rejects him and that further complicates his chances.
The dispute over the trial of the Court complicates the chances of the ruling party to meet to approve economic laws
In addition, this week the ruling party gave an opinion on the project that establishes a new Simplified Regime for Small Technological Taxpayers, also known as “Mono Tech” or “monotributo tech”, which is aimed at professionals who export their services based mainly on knowledge -including “gamers”- abroad so that they can collect in dollars with a annual cap of up to US$30,000 and pay the treasury through a scheme of differentiated scales.
The main opposition bench also has reservations on this issue, considering that it is not exactly a reform but simply a new “differential exchange rate” for a specific sector.
On the agenda of the extraordinary ones there is also the project of Promotion of Agroindustrial Development which aims, broadly speaking, at the incorporation of investments and greater technology, such as seeds, fertilizers, and genetics in the productive chain of the sector in order to export more added value and thus boost sales abroad.
Another topic, promoted with special interest by the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massais the “externalization of Argentine savings” bill that proposes a new laundering of undeclared capital leveraged in the new tax information exchange agreement with the United States.
Why is impeachment admissibility a key step?
Among the attributions of the Impeachment Commission is that of ask for reportscarry out inspections, ask judges for judicial files and even search warrants or seizure orders. All this, added to the possibility of subpoena witnesses and gather testimonyis part of the test production process.
In approving the admissibility of the 14 requests for impeachment, The ruling party opened the door to that process that constitutes the heart of its strategy against the Court: that the commission request documents and begin to summon witnesses, among which would be all the employees of the highest court and, finally, the judges themselves.
The ruling party seeks to expose the four judges of the Court after successive rulings against the Government
The intention of the ruling party, which knows that it will be almost impossible to gather in the enclosure the majority of two thirds to approve the effective initiation of impeachment What could lead to the dismissal of the magistrates is to expose the magistrates and generate a kind of wear and tear on them.
The idea is to highlight a thesis that several times underlined Cristina Kirchner: that the actions of the highest court in the last four years have supposed political motivations against Peronism but also affect daily life with rulings such as the one that annulled the declaration of internet and cable TV services as a public service, which would have limited the increases.
In this context, the Frente de Todos seeks a parade of witnesses that will also include leaders of Juntos por el Cambio such as the former Buenos Aires Security Minister Marcelo D’Alessandro, for his alleged chat conversations with a Rosatti collaborator, Silvio Robles.
And it is that the confrontation with the opposition and especially with one of its main presidential candidates such as the head of the Buenos Aires Government, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, is also part of the process that the Frente de Todos wants to carry out in the Impeachment Commission.
