Buenos Aires The law of bases and starting points for the freedom of Argentines, popularly known as the omnibus law due to its magnitude, was approved this Friday in the Chamber of Deputies of Argentina. With 144 votes in favor, 109 against and no abstentions, President Javier Milei’s macro-law takes a first big step in Parliament, which still has to vote on it in private – that is, make amendments – from Tuesday next. The text will then go to the Senate to be fully approved and come into force. The longest legislative session of Argentine democracy – 29 hours spread over three days – has been accompanied by street demonstrations and police repression.
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“History will remember with honor all those who understood the historical context and chose to end the privileges of caste and the corporate republic, in favor of the people, who have been impoverished and starved for years by the political class,” said the press release from the president’s office minutes after the news, published on the social network X. Milei thanked the “collaboration” of the opposition: “We hope to have the same greatness on the day of the vote on the law in particular, to advance in the Senate and begin to return dignity to the Argentine people. The only viable path for our country is that of freedom, work and order”, he said.
Milei needed 129 favorable votes in Parliament for this first approval of the law. Being in a clear minority – his coalition, La Llibertat Avança, has only 38 deputies -, the president has the support of the 37 deputies of the PRO – the traditional right of ex-president Mauricio Macri – and the so-called “dialogue opposition”, made up of the centre-right Radical Civic Union (UCR), provincial parties, and Peronists who have left the Union for the Fatherland ranks. After weeks of negotiations, however, Milei has been forced to give up several points in the initial text. In fact, it has almost halved the 644 articles of the original proposal, but there are still controversial points that will be debated in the private vote, article by article.
Controversial points
One of the most controversial points is the attribution of extraordinary powers to the president. Milei wants the legislature to grant him emergency powers until December 31 of this year, which can be extended for another year. The original proposal covered the full mandate, but it had to be cut to add support.
Also, the privatization of public companies is still a stone in the government’s shoe. Milei wants to sell them all, but she doesn’t have the support to do so. Consequently, it has had to reduce the list from 41 to 26 companies. Among others, he has taken out the YPF oil company and has agreed not to privatize all of them 100% but to make them mixed. There is also no agreement on the powers of the executive to take external debt without the authorization of the legislature. The president wants to bypass congressional approval so he can borrow from, say, the International Monetary Fund.
There are also discrepancies regarding the security protocol promoted by Minister Patricia Bullrich, already cut in such a controversial point as the ban on gatherings of more than three people on public roads. Regarding fiscal reform, Milei will have to negotiate directly with the provincial governors, who disagree with the proposal that advocates that part of the tax on operations in foreign currency cease to revert to public works in the interior of the country. The private vote and the amendments on these points of conflict will start on Tuesday at noon in the Chamber of Deputies.
Police repression
With temperatures of more than 30 degrees, the last few nights have been lived with tension between demonstrators and police officers in front of Congress. Minister Bullrich’s new security law declares it illegal to block a public road for a demonstration, and the “anti-picketing protocol” has been effectively applied to disperse people gathered against the omnibus law. An enormous deployment of cash mounted on motorbikes and fired tear gas and rubber bullets at the demonstrators – there were representatives of social movements, retirees, unions – and journalists. Barricades have been set up with containers and there have been clashes with the police, whom Bullrich congratulated in a tweet, where he warned that all protesters who burned public property, threw stones or attacked the police: “Whoever does it, pays for it”, he warned.
2024-02-03 01:44:29
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