Javier Milei clashes with Congress in Argentina. In the middle of his trip abroad, the president noticed how various deputies who were allegedly allies surprisingly rejected several articles of his mega-deregulatory law, which had been generally approved just days before. From Israel, the libertarian assured that these legislators have "turned their backs on the Argentines."
After weeks of negotiations, the Minister of the Interior, Guillermo Francos, and the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Martín Menem, negotiated with the opposition to test the Law of Bases and Starting Points for the Freedom of Argentines in the Lower House. Despite being a legislative minority, the government managed to gather 144 votes in favor of approving the text in general, in the absence of article-by-article voting according to local rules.
The conflict is the following: it turns out that, before the vote, the executive had negotiated the votes necessary to approve the key articles related to delegated powers and privatizations without having to go through Congress. However, hours later, those same deputies inexplicably voted against the law, forcing Milei's government to reverse the legislation and return it to committee.
LA CASTA CONTRA EL PUEBLO
La casta se puso en contra del cambio que los argentinos votamos en las urnas.
Sabemos que no va a ser fácil cambiar un sistema donde los políticos se hicieron ricos a costa de los argentinos que se levantan todos los días a trabajar.
Nuestro programa…
— Javier Milei (@JMilei) February 6, 2024
What does it mean to return it to committee? It's now as if it had never passed in the first place, and the entire legislative process has to start over again.
"The agreement that existed before the session was violated"
The presidential spokesperson, Manuel Adorni, assured that "the agreement that existed before the session was violated," so the solution was to not risk the law in its entirety. "We were not going to allow the law to be compromised and article by article to be destroyed. (...) Let's move on. When politics understands what Argentina needs, the law will be discussed again and what the people asked for will be done again: a different Argentina. (...) Some politicians are not up to the task in a country that is falling apart," he added, in dialogue with LN+.
However, he showed optimism for the coming weeks. "Sooner or later, the law will end up being approved. What we are discussing is the timeline. Argentina cannot move forward without deregulating the economy and without a lot of issues that the Law of Bases included," he stated.
Oscar Zago, president of the deputies in La Libertad Avanza (Milei's party), expressed himself along the same lines. "This morning, we had a consensus; there were few articles that were not agreed upon. This morning, they told us they agreed; they sat down and voted against it. We have to start over," he declared.
Una vez más, como pasó durante mi gobierno entre 2015 y 2019, una parte de la política que decía estar comprometida con hacer una Argentina distinta, vota en contra al llegar al recinto. Impide, traba y retrocede. Pero a no aflojar: la gran mayoría de los argentinos están con el…
— Mauricio Macri (@mauriciomacri) February 7, 2024
In turn, he aimed his frustration directly at the governors, whom he pointed out as those responsible for the fact that some deputies changed their minds in a matter of hours. "The governors did not keep their word; we are going to work and dialogue in commission. The project did not fail; the governors did not keep their word," he commented.
Milei used his X account, formerly Twitter, to criticize the opposition. "The political caste was against the change that we Argentines voted for at the polls. We know that it will not be easy to change a system where politicians became rich at the expense of Argentines who get up and go to work every day. Our administration was voted for by 56% of Argentines, and we are not willing to negotiate it with those who destroyed the country. There are political sectors that resist making the changes that the country needs. They are going to have to explain to society why. We are going to continue with our plan with or without the support of the political leadership that destroyed our country. LONG LIVE F*CKING FREEDOM," the president wrote.
The government specifically pointed out the deputies who report to five governors: Martín Llaryora (Córdoba), Carlos Sadir (Jujuy), Hugo Passalacqua (Misiones), Gustavo Sáenz (Salta) and Rolando Figueroa (Neuquén).
Specifically, the people of Córdoba from the We Make Federal Coalition bloc and the Peronists from the Federal Innovation bloc were the ones who changed their votes. They were joined by a group of deputies from the Radical Civic Union (center-left), who report to Governor Pullaro.
