The ruling party will try to sign this Tuesday, with the support of the dialogue blocks, the opinion of the Bases Law and the fiscal packagealthough The bloc chaired by Miguel Pichetto altered the Government’s plans by resolving, with legal arguments, not insist on the privatization of Aerolíneas Argentinas, the Correos and the public media. That decision dragged down the PRO and the UCR, and distanced La Libertad Avanza from the necessary votes in the chamber.
He debate will take place this Tuesday in two sessions: at 3:00 p.m. The General Legislation, Budget and Constitutional Affairs commissions will meet for the Bases Law, and at 6 p.m. the fiscal package will be discussed in Budget. The intention of the ruling party is to meet this Thursday at 9 and finally close the discussion that dominated the first six months of Javier Milei’s administration.
Tafter a meeting in the offices of the president of the lower house, Martín Menemthe deputy chief of staff, Jose Rolandiand the Secretary of Strategic Planning, María Ibarzábal, left with the feeling that they will not have the necessary votes to privatize Aerolíneas, Correo and RTA (Radio and Television Argentina), the three companies that were removed from the list in the Senate by an alleged agreement with the dialogueists, later denied by the Government.
The Casa Rosada wanted Deputies to insist on passing those three companies into private handsbut this Monday We make the Federal Coalition finish burying the plansalthough he did so with technical arguments and not substance: as the list was shortened by decision of the ruling party before the vote in the Senate, they considered that it was not possible to insist.
Somehow, the position of Hacemos also overcame the internal radical one, where there were two divided positions: on the one hand, the one headed by the head of the bloc, Rodrigo De Loredo, who was in favor of privatizing Aerolíneas; and on the other, those who demanded to respect the changes of the Senate, such as Julio Cobos from Mendoza and the deputies referenced in the neuroscientist Facundo Manes.
Bases Law: the ruling party would lose the battle of the privatized companies
Everything indicates that the ruling party will resign itself to losing the privatization battle so as not to jeopardize the joint opinion with the dialogueists. In that office, the Base Law will be accepted with all the changes introduced by the Senate (they also include tweaks to the RIGI and the labor reform, among others), with the intention of resolving the issue in the chamber in a single vote.
In the fiscal package, meanwhile, emphasis will be placed on reinstating the Income Tax and resuming the changes in Personal Assets., as requested by the Government. The UCR and the Civic Coalition will also ask to insist on another article to cut the State’s tax spending (it targets the industrial promotion regime of Tierra del Fuego), but they would do so with the sole intention of exposing the votes against, since the The Senate rejected it with two-thirds and they will not have that majority to insist.
Prior to the first plenary session, the last negotiations will take place. At 9 the radical bloc will meetwhile at 12 noon the governors of the former alliance Juntos por el Cambio and the governor of Córdoba, Martín Llaryora, will disembark in Congress, taking advantage of a trip to Buenos Aires to participate in the Federal Meeting for Memory on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the AMIA.
The governors will meet with deputies from the UCR, Hacemos e Innovación Federal, who hope that there will be some statement to reinforce, above all, the restoration of Profits (with the exception of Ignacio Torres from Chubut, who rejects the return of the tax). They hope to take that message to a final summit with Rolandi and Ibarzábal scheduled for 1:00 p.m., where they will make the final “porote” for that chapter, which in the original version was approved with 132 votes (only three more than the quorum).
Bases Law: Miguel Pichetto’s decision
We have resolved not to collaborate with the ruling party in privatizing those three companies because they were removed from the list by the reporting member of La Libertad Avanza, Bartolomé Abdala, before being put to a vote in the Senate, when the law had not even been approved in general. Was there malpractice in the ruling party? This is how several in Pichetto’s block interpreted it.
“The privatizations were withdrawn from the opinion by Abdala before it was voted on. They cannot rejoin. We cannot insist on an issue that was not discussed. If the Government wants to insist on privatizations, it can send laws throughout the year,” the man from Rio Negro argued to RIO NEGRO Diary.
Pichetto arrived at this position after a weekend where he evaluated in detail, together with the representative for Córdoba Agost Carreño, the stenographic version of the Senate, a parliamentary record from 1995 and records of Supreme Court rulings. After this analysis, he prioritized the desire to prevent eventual judicialization.
With all the material on the table, Agost Carreño was in charge of informing Rolandi, via telephone call, of Hacemos’ position. It was hours before the meeting at Menem’s offices. Guillermo Francos’ deputy received the news with surprise and concern.
The negotiations then moved to Menem’s office., where the head of the libertarian bloc, Gabriel Bornoroni, also attended; the presidents of the three debate commissions, Santiago Santurio, Nicolás Mayoraz and José Luis Espert; Silvia Lospennato and Silvana Giudici for the PRO; Carla Carrizo, Karina Banfi and Pamela Verasay for the UCR; Emilio Monzó for Hacemos; and Juan Manuel López for the Civic Coalition.
