Harsh questioning by Gabriela Pedrali against Martín Menem
The Rioja legislator began her speech by saying “my most energetic repudiation of the attacks of Deputy (Martín) Menem towards the Government and the province of La Rioja. Since February, Deputy Menem has been disseminating tendentious and biased information about the relationship between the Nation and the province; on provincial management, on public finances, on the implementation of national measures in the provincial territory. This barrage of spurious information has the sole electoral purpose of someone who was voted by the people to defend the interests of the province, something that he can hardly do without visiting the provincial territory and presenting projects.”
Pedrali stated that “in the last of these attacks, Deputy Menem asked a literal question: where is the money that Milei sends to La Rioja. First of all, we want to clarify that it is not Milei that sends the money, but rather they are co-participation funds established by law for all provinces for this federal government system.”
“We want to invite deputy Martín Menem to the province – continued Pedrali – so that he can see the infrastructure works, services, production, in industries, schools, hospitals, in homes. Our Angelelli Plan, in transportation. All activities that his government at the national level has defunded and that in our province we continue to support with great effort of our own. We can also show you the cost of maintaining these State activities, which has become brutally more expensive based on high rates. Just to name one, fuel for ambulances and patrol cars.”
And he added: “We urge Deputy Menem to stop with this attitude of personal positioning, and ratify at this moment the debt that the national government has with our province, more than 100 billion pesos, which are in the Budget Law and which It is due to La Rioja. We also want to know where the ATN that the Nation sends go, and what destination of funds they have, since they are not being executed like the FONID or the delivery of food.”
Finally, he expressed that “this deputy continues to justify the defunding of our province. An important fact to keep in mind is that in recent years the province of La Rioja remained below the national average in poverty. His speech about not sending money because it is administered poorly is the same story why they left the sick with medicine, the same story why they left the soup kitchens without food. We would like you to stop justifying the unjustifiable, stop playing that role of teacher in front of the blackboard, and get to know some neighborhood, our town before talking about the province and the authorities that govern it.”
