The suspension of the debate by the Budget 2025 left the governors in an uncomfortable position, who put pressure on the absence of the deputies who respond to them to bring down the session that was going to be discussed Clean record, Argentine vote abroadand reforms in laws reiteration and recidivism. With 128 seats presentone legislator was missing to reach a quorum: as this logic was established for the entire parliamentary year, Martin Menem did not agree to the requests of the PRO to wait a few more minutes.
There was relief among legislative workers: I anticipated a session of at least ten hourswith speeches that would revolve around the institutionality, which, precisely, is what the provinces that ask for a budget project to avoid one more period of discretion. Just as the ruling party brought down the session DNU reform Last week, the opposition’s absence once again guaranteed the lack of a quorum in a Congress that is paralyzed in the midst of the tug-of-war between the interests of Casa Rosada and the provinces.
The benches in this Wednesday’s session that expressed their majority support for the debate were the PROthe Civic Coalition, the Radical Civic Union (UCR) and Democracy Forever. The absences were partial Federal Meeting and Freedom Advancesand block totals Federal Innovation, Union for the Homeland (whose deputies approached the premises en masse when it seemed that the quorum was reached) and the Left Front.
One of the winning blocks of the day was Democracy Foreverof dissident radicals, who did not want to give a political victory to the ruling party but neither did they want to represent obstruction to this electoral reform. Then they were in their pews, but it still wasn’t enough for a quorum. “It was a fine move, I’m full of adrenaline“said a member of the bench minutes after the session ended: “We figured that three were going to be missing because some libertarians were leaving.”
The same deputy stressed that the dialogue with the majority bloc of the UCR is not closed and they seek to regain fluidity with some of their members to expand the number of the opposition alliance. A representative of that bench did not ratify this version, but did point to another crack: the one they have internally with the five most aligned radicals with the Government. “They operate with their own logic. Next year we will see what happens“, he analyzed.
Governors’ claim
The possibility of including new opinions to vote in the chamber is now closed, there are still ten days left for the end of ordinary sessions and in the different blocks a series of issues are reiterated that they will strive to address before November 30: again Clean Sheetthe limitation of online betting advertising and -one of the opposition wishes- reform of the DNU law.
However, everyone repeats the central interest in dealing with the project of Budget 2025. “We were totally consistent in our requests, but it seems that They care about SIDE and the Ministry of Defense and we are with universities and retirement funds“, summarized a radical deputy close to a governorship. On the other side of the political spectrum, Germán Martínez (Union for the Homeland) shared the view: “When they saw that the proposal of the provinces could have led to some change in the Budget, they returned to the original plan, which was not have this law”.
Democracy Forever Deputies
Democracy Forever Block
This vision is shared by all legislative representatives linked to provincial governments. “The governors asked for some adjustments to the Budget knowing that the Government did not want to debate it. What we knew was going to happen happened; The Government did not accept anything and the Budget fell. The governors lost again“, they told Ámbito from Cordovawhile from Chaco they stated that “the Nation does not want the Budget because that would allow it to continue managing with total Discretionary resources in an electoral year“.
Now it remains to know if the Government He will offer concessions to the governors. There are two possibilities: postpone regular sessions (which would enable any bloc to propose topics for voting) or call extraordinary sessions (which limits the parliamentary agenda to its proposals). Until now, the possibility of using the Budget 2023 another year, patched with decrees, and negotiate with international organizations through the guidelines of the DNU 846/2024 on free debt exchange.
Deputies: the agenda that was going to be debated
The opinion of the project Clean Sheet was reached in September of this year and was looking prevent those who have a criminal conviction with a second-instance ruling for certain crimes from being candidates for elective public positions such as influence peddling, embezzlement of public funds, illicit enrichment, concealment and fraud to the detriment of the public administration.
The temporary disqualification would be maintained until the conviction is revoked or the sentence is served. The initiative is supported by La Libertad Avanza, the PRO, Federal Meeting, Civic Coalition and the UCR.
The other proposal on the agenda would seek to modify the Registration of Voters Resident Abroadcreated by law in 1991. Within this framework, it was intended to enable the postal vote instead of the current system, where the vote in person at Argentine consulates.
For its part, the reforms of the Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code around the reiterationwhich would imply that a person who is being prosecuted for various criminal cases spends the investigation time in a confinement context before being tried. It also sought to aggravate the sentences for recidivism and the unification of sentences, and figures are established that preventive detention is extended: presumption of danger of flight, obstruction of the investigation and repetition of crime.
Source: Ambito
