“If we cannot privatize it, we are willing to hand over Aerolíneas Argentinas to the employees”said the Head of State in statements to LN+.
Weeks ago he entered the Chamber of Deputies the National Emergency Decree (DNU) 873/24, that declares to Argentine Airlines subject to privatization. Now it remains for the issue to be discussed in both chambers of Congress, which will have the final say.
The decree was the first step in the management of Javier Milei to get rid of the state company, which had been left out of the list of companies to be privatized in the Law Bases.
The Government relied on Law No. 23,696, which establishes that to proceed with the sale of state companies, sThey must previously declare “subject to privatization” by the Executive Branch.
Likewise, they based the decision by referring to Decree No. 70/23, with which “a public emergency was declared in economic, financial, fiscal and administrative matters.”
Based on that, they argued that The National Treasury “is not in a position to maintain a highly deficient company through the contribution of hundreds of millions of pesos that come from the efforts of the inhabitants of the Argentine Republic.”
The Government advances with the privatization of Aerolíneas Argentinas
Among the reasons given by the Government in the decree, they point out that The National Treasury “is not in a position to maintain a highly deficient company through the contribution of hundreds of millions of pesos that come from the efforts of the inhabitants of the ARGENTINE REPUBLIC.”
Furthermore, they argue that “the privatization of the company and its operation under market conditions will allow better service provisionthe care of the public coffers and, mainly, that Argentines stop financing the deficit of an inefficient company.”
Along these lines, they maintain that the State aims “allocate limited fiscal resources to meet the needs of those who have the least”in a context in which “poverty reaches FIFTY-TWO POINT NINE PERCENT (52.9%) of the population and indigence reaches EIGHTEEN POINT ONE PERCENT (18.1%)”.
With the publication of the decree, the Government thus places itself above the projects presented by the PRO and the UCR. The first was presented by the deputy Hernan Lombardi and also declares the company “subject to privatization” in the terms and with the effects provided for in Law 23,696. Furthermore, it authorizes the Executive Branch to “establish the legal framework and carry out the procedure to implement the privatization process referred to in Article 1.”
The other initiative was presented by the head of the Civic Coalition block, Juan Manuel Lopez. This text specifies that when privatizing the firm, Law 23,696 and its amendments are contemplated, “and must comply, for such purposes, with the prescriptions that arise from said norm and those established by articles 11 to 14 of Law 27,742”, of Bases and Starting Points for Argentines.
Source: Ambito
