Six months after taking office and after multiple concessions, Javier Milei achieved approval in the Senate of his Base Law project, a mutilated version of the legal framework with which he intends to deregulate the economy, dismantle the State and assume legislative powers. The suspense over the result hovered over a tense session that lasted more than 13 hours until the vote in general and then continued with the debate in particular. The senators’ vote resulted in a 36-36 tie, which was defined by Vice President Victoria Villarruel in favor of the Government. It was the end of a day marked by social protests against the law and by police repression ordered by the far-right administration around Congress, with injuries and arrests, gas, rubber bullets and burning cars.
As soon as the voting was over, the Executive celebrated the result. “With terrorist groups attacking Congress, security forces having to be deployed in defense of democracy (…) tonight is a triumph for the Argentine people and the first step towards the recovery of our greatness, having approved the legislative reform most ambitious in the last 40 years,” indicated a statement from the Office of the President. Strictly speaking, to become law, the Milei project must be discussed again in the Chamber of Deputies, given that changes were introduced in the half-sanction approved there in April.
While this Wednesday morning the senators began to debate, in the street political, social and union organizations linked to the left and Peronism gathered to express their rejection of the measures promoted by the Government. “The country is not sold, it is defended,” was the most shouted slogan. After noon the incidents broke out. The numerous security agents deployed in the area tried to clear the public road and clashes with protesters multiplied. Rocks on one side, rubber bullets and tear gas on the other. The police arrested about 30 people and among the dozens of injured there were even opposition deputies. In the evening, after the law was passed, new incidents occurred. At that time, in the City of Buenos Aires and different parts of the Buenos Aires territory, banging of pots and pans of protest could be heard.
The negotiation
The approval cost the Government dearly. In a large minority in a body of 72 senators, with only seven seats of its own and another six of its allies from the PRO – led by former president Mauricio Macri – the ruling party of La Libertad Avanza had to decline many of its initial proposals. To reach half plus one of the votes, he negotiated until the last moment, even during the session, with the representatives of what Milei despises as the “political caste.”
The president’s ambition to privatize more than 40 state companies had already been pruned in Deputies and the Senate reduced the list even further. At the beginning of the session in the Senate it was announced that Aerolíneas Argentinas, Correo Argentino and the media conglomerate Radio y Televisión Argentina were excluded from the project and, thus, only eight companies were left in a position to pass, totally or partially, into private hands. .
The Executive also had to decline the pension reform that sought, among other things, to eliminate the moratorium that allows people—mainly women—to retire without the amount of salary contributions required by law. In addition, he had to agree to give continuity to advanced public works or those with international financing—Milei has stopped all spending on infrastructure work. The president will also not be able to dissolve public organizations linked to science and culture.
Late in the session, when it was evident that the votes were not enough, the ruling party made a new concession and admitted to limiting the productive sectors in which the Large Investment Incentive Regime (RIGI) can be applied, which provides for tax, customs and exchange benefits. to try to seduce foreign capital.
Milei’s administration had no alternative and had to give in to obtain the favorable vote of the dialogue opposition, the legislators of the Radical Civic Union, non-Kirchnerist Peronism and provincial parties that finally accompanied the ruling party. A new failure, after long months of discussion and a first version of the law completely sunk in Deputies in February, would have been a blow that would be difficult to overcome.
The debate
The negotiations in search of votes took place off-screen, while the discussion progressed in the Upper House. There were harsh exchanges at the climax of the police repression, when opposition legislators demanded, without success, a temporary suspension of the debate to request reports on the situation on the street.
“The people voted for this Government and we must give them tools. “We are going to accompany and try to organize Argentina towards a better future,” was the argument chosen by Senator Eduardo Vischi, from the UCR, to explain radicalism’s support for the project. “Do you really want us to delegate legislative powers to improve the functioning of the State to the president who says he loves being the mole who is going to destroy the State from within?” asked Kirchnerist senator Juliana Di Tullio, from Unión por la Patria. when arguing his negative vote. Libertarian senator Ezequiel Atauche asked for support for “a law that will lay the foundations to truly change Argentina.” Vice President Villarruel joined the speeches when she had the opportunity to break the tie: “Today we saw two Argentines, one violent and the other one of the workers who are waiting for the vote that last year elected a change to be respected,” she said, with a chorus of screams in the background.
In the particular vote on each section of the law, Villarruel also had to break the tie to approve the delegation of legislative powers to the president and the declaration of emergencies in administrative, economic, financial and energy matters for one year. He did it again to validate the reform of the State and the privatizations of public companies. The labor and public employment reform, as well as the reform of administrative procedures and energy policy, were approved by a simple majority. One of the initiatives that sparked the most discussion was the creation of the Large Investment Incentive Regime (RIGI), questioned due to deregulations that could encourage the delivery of natural resources and cause environmental risks.
After the vote, the Senate still had to deal with the second leg of Milei’s projects, the so-called fiscal package, which includes the restoration of the income tax, money laundering and other tax reforms. By then, Milei was preparing to travel to Italy, to participate in the G-7 summit, after delaying his departure while awaiting the decision of the Upper House. When the Bases Law has been addressed again in Deputies, where the Executive assumes a favorable result for sure, the president will call on governors, former presidents, legislators and leaders “to abandon the old recipes for failure, forget political differences, embrace the ideas of freedom and establish ten refoundational policies to return the future to Argentines,” reported the Office of the President, in full enthusiasm for the parliamentary result. The corollary to which Milei aspires is the signing of “a historic commitment to lift Argentina out of the pit into which personal vendettas, petty interests and the poverty ideology of the last 100 years have plunged it.”
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