The Base Law and the Fiscal Package will be debated next Wednesday in the Senate starting at 10, and everything indicates that it will be approved in general. That is the only certainty I could give myself, everything else is conjecture from a session that will be rough from start to finish.
Kirchnerism will try until the last minute to prevent it from being approved, and for that purpose it has planned some political strategies that it will not reveal until the moment of its execution. On the opposite side, La Libertad Avanza (LLA), an official bloc plagued with inexperience to defend two mega bills that include everything from labor reform to money laundering.
“There is no one from the ruling party who is looking for what modifications can be made or working on changes to define a text in the chamber,” said a legislator who has not yet finished revealing his vote. In the corridors of the Upper House secrecy reigns.
Logically, the ruling party is optimistic, but no one can be sure where the needed votes will come from. “Today we have them, tomorrow I don’t know,” they stated from the office of the head of the libertarian bloc, Ezequiel Atauche. The truth is that no one can explain where the numbers are going to come from so that the most important articles are approved.
This weakness was reflected since the signing of the opinion of the draft Bases Law and the Fiscal Pact. Only the two official supporters fully adhered, the rest did so with dissidents. “That day (Guillermo) Francos arrived with the Christmas box and began to distribute it to all the offices,” said a senator ironically in dialogue with MDZ to criticize how the signing of the opinion was.
Francos does not take his foot out of the negotiations
The one who did continue to move was the Chief of Staff who during the week received different key governors to define the course of the vote in the Senate. Many of them left the Pink House with the transfer of public works from the Nation to their districts in order to finish them, something that they had been demanding since the Government of Javier Milei decided to freeze them.
The meetings with the governors Rolando “Rolo” Figueroa (Neuquén), Martín Llaryora (Córdoba), Osvaldo Jaldo (Tucumán), which ended with photos and smiles, give the tone that something may be settling in the Senate so that it is approved the Bases law. The governors took what they asked for, now the Government hopes that the change will be reflected in Congress.
“Francos is wanting to close votes with the transfer of works, without putting a weight on it,” a parliamentary source assessed, ironically, to show the permanent difficulties that the ruling party faces.
The points that remain unresolved
No one can be sure where the votes will come from to approve the powers delegated to Javier Milei. The statement that the president gave this week in which he assured that he infiltrates the State to destroy it from the inside made several senators doubt whether it was a good idea to give those tools to the libertarian.
In addition to the thirty-odd members of Unión por la Patria, which officially number 33 but some can drop out, the radicals Martín Lousteau and Pablo Blanco are not willing to vote for this. Added to this are Patagonians like Lucila Crexell, who until last week proudly showed that she “had never voted for delegation of powers.”
Privatization is another point where no one wants to get stuck. In addition to the Patagonians who resist handing over Aerolíneas Argentinas, the Post Office and Radio and Television, Lousteau presented his opinion this Friday with several modifications to the official party. There he calls for the system that was talked about in Deputies of “law by law.”
Edgardo Kueider (Federal Unit) is one of those who questions the approval of the Large Fortune Incentive Regime (RIGI). Although he signed the opinion in dissent, he privately maintains that “as it stands he does not vote for it.” Along the same lines are Lousteau and Carlos “Camau” Espínola.
No one should be surprised if next week the ruling party does not achieve the political success it hopes to have in the Senate. The fact of being a hyper minority and having a Chamber with different interests makes negotiations difficult. Likewise, the call is firm and on Wednesday Javier Milei’s megaproject will be debated in the Senate.
