In Casa Rosada, the ruling party met with the presidents of the allied blocs of deputies in advance of the extraordinary sessions.
The ruling party managed to make progress after its first meeting with allies of Congress in Casa Rosada. As part of the agenda he presented to extraordinary sessionssupport was guaranteed in the Chamber of Deputies for the project Clean Sheetand contributed to another key initiative in the electoral year: the elimination of STEP. The allied blocs reiterated their demand for approval of a Budget law.
The call period for extraordinary sessions It formally began on Monday, January 20, but in Pink House The Government established, together with its allies, a different legislative schedule, which would start on Tuesday, February 4 with activity in commissions and would have two sessions planned: one for that same week, on February 6, where it would seek to address the electoral reform of the ruling party, and a second session the following week.
The meeting was headed by the Chief of Staff, Guillermo Francoswho before the meeting recognized that there is a lack of support to carry out the elimination of STEP -not radicalism either-, but that would enable avenues for dialogue with Peronism to advance a possible suspension of the primaries only during the 2025 elections. On the other hand, all those present expressed their support for the Clean Sheet projectpresented this Friday by the ruling party.
In addition to Francos and the vice-chief, his right hands –Lisandro Catalán and José Rolandi-, the meeting was attended by the head of the Chamber of Deputies, Martin Menemand four block presidents: Gabriel Bornoroni (Freedom Advances), Cristian Ritondo (PRO), Rodrigo de Loredo (UCR) and Oscar Zago (MID). Although he was summoned, he was absent Miguel Pichetto (Federal Meeting), which argued that legislative debates should not take place outside the Congress.
Budget 2025
At the end of the meeting, the deputies allied with the ruling party expressed their interest in the approval of the Budget 2025, given that the Government decided to extend for one more year the one approved for the year 2023. “We proposed the three blocks, and the Chief of Staff took the proposal, that we have a project from the government itself that has an opinion,” raised Oscar Zago, who indicated that the ruling party could “try to bring positions together to have a quorum and perhaps include it. They did not commit to doing so now in extraordinary sessions.”
“There was no commitment from the Government”he insisted Cristian Ritondo. For its part, Rodrigo de Loredo gave more details, pointing out that they are looking for a middle point “between an exaggerated and irresponsible budget presented by the opposition and the Government’s idea of feeling comfortable with a second budget extension, which “It allows the Government to have $25 billion – 30% of the 2025 Budget – on a discretionary basis.”
In conclusion, he noted: “If you combine that amount of money with superpowers that the Government has, the impossibility of controlling Congress is very great. Furthermore, it seems to us that until there is a budget by law, quality investments linked to capital goods will not come, but only investments from the financial world. “We were willing to approve the Budget as a closed book law“, he synthesized.
Source: Ambito
