Friday December 23, 2022 | 3:23 p.m.
President Alberto Fernández considered that from the ruling “we are facing a clash of powers” because the highest court “achieved the incredible”, in reference to the fact that a resolution “contradicts the Executive and Legislative Powers”, while He described the decision of the highest court as “unpublished, incongruous and impossible to comply with”.
Fernández decided to challenge the members of the Supreme Court of the Nation and present a request for revocation “in extremis” against the precautionary resolution issued by the highest court
“The national Constitution never mentions the city of Buenos Aires as part of the co-participation,” he stated.
In addition, the president maintained that the ruling of the Supreme Court in favor of the city of Buenos Aires on co-participating funds is “very unique” and “impossible to comply.”
“The first thing we have to understand is that those of us who want to live in a rule of law want to live in a country where the powers of each of the powers are respected, and where no power assumes functions of another power, and that this comes constantly going through with the Supreme Court of Justice,” said the president in statements to the C5N channel, later replicated by Télam.
The president expressed that the laws sanctioned by Congress “must be complied with”, after the Government announced that it will challenge the Supreme Court judges who ruled against a regulation of the Executive Power in the dispute with the city of Buenos Aires by matching funds.
“How is it that it is suspended only for the Executive Power?”, the president wondered about the resolution of the highest court, adding that the rule in question “has not been declared null or questioned in its constitutionality.”
Fernández maintained that “beyond” wanting to comply with the Supreme Court ruling in favor of the city of Buenos Aires for co-participating funds, he must send a law to Congress that “resolves a new budget” that establishes “where we are going from to withdraw the funds”, and in that case if it is with “taxes, increase in withholdings or indebtedness”.
He pointed out that the Court established that the Nation must allocate 2.95% of the transfer to the City” but the Government “does not have the slightest idea” why they “arrived at that calculation” and also stated that “this money is not in the budget national”.
The support of the governors
The Head of State explained that the governors with whom he met to analyze the Supreme Court ruling on co-participation “the first thing they saw is that they are the ones who are losing.”
“The theory that the money leaves the Nation and does not affect the provinces is false, because the money that the national State has is used in favor of the provinces,” he said.
On the other hand, Fernández affirmed that “he does not know” if the objective of the ruling is to finance the electoral campaign of the head of the Buenos Aires government, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, but he estimated that, by resolving in this way, the highest court “will achieve it” .
The Government, with the agreement of 14 governors who signed the document, considered that what was resolved by the highest court constitutes “a political ruling, facing the election year” and warned that, with this decision, “the Supreme Court intends to take resources away from all the provinces to give them to the head of government of the CABA”.
“This measure is, under current conditions, impossible to comply with, since the National Congress approved the 2023 budget by law without contemplating budgetary credit for this purpose,” explained the statement released by the office of the spokesperson for the Presidency.
The President made the decision to challenge the Supreme Court judges after a meeting he held with Peronist governors at the Casa Rosada, in a meeting called to analyze the consequences of the provisions of the high court on Wednesday.
The document bears the signatures of the governors of Buenos Aires, Catamarca, Chaco, Chubut, Entre Ríos, Formosa, La Pampa, La Rioja, San Juan, San Luis, Santa Cruz, Santiago del Estero, Tierra del Fuego and Tucumán.
These provinces “since they are directly affected by the arbitrary decision adopted by the CSJN, they will instruct the competent authorities of their jurisdictions so that the provincial states request to be held as a party to the file accompanying the challenge” and to request the revocation ” in extremis” of the precautionary resolution, according to the document.
What does the court ruling say?
The ruling signed by the four members of the Court (Horacio Rosatti, Ricardo Lorenzetti, Juan Carlos Maqueda and Carlos Rosenkrantz) orders the National Government to pay the City of Buenos Aires 2.95% of the volume of co-participating taxes.
The origin of the controversy dates back to 2016, when then-President Mauricio Macri signed a decree that increased CABA’s participation from 1.4% to 3.75% for federal co-participation. Then, with another decree, the founder of the PRO modified that number and set it at 3.5%.
The explanation of the Government of Cambiemos at that time was that the amount responded to the “Progressive Transfer Agreement to the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires of powers and security functions in all non-federal matters exercised” in the city.
According to this statement, the district commanded by Horacio Rodríguez Larreta demanded 112 billion pesos for a force of 19,000 agents, something that contrasts with the 70 billion pesos that the Federal Police receives for its 32,000 troops.
In 2020, already during the Government of Alberto Fernández, that percentage was reduced and a law was passed in Congress to set the amount that should be paid to the City.
“Currently, according to Law 27,606 in force and approved by the National Congress, the City of Buenos Aires receives, as it has done since 2002, the equivalent of 1.4% of the total co-participating funds and, in addition, the amount equivalent to the operating cost of the Buenos Aires City police that was transferred to it in 2016,” recalled the Government in the document signed today.
The highest court -although it did not resolve the substantive issue- endorsed the precautionary measure requested by the Buenos Aires Government, which in practical terms will mean that the payments of that 2.95% must be made “daily and automatically” by the Bank of the Argentine Nation and the law 27,606 that granted 2.32% is suspended.
