The repeal of the DNU obtained 49 votes in favor of the Union for the Fatherland, the Radical Civic Union (except for the absent Mendoza natives Rodolfo Suarez and Mariana Juri), and three from the PRO (Guadalupe Tagliaferri from Buenos Aires, Victoria Huala from La Pampa and Alfredo De Ángeli from Entre Ríos. The ruling party barely got 11 and there were two abstentions, from the Macri candidate Martín Goerling (Misiones) and Andrea Cristina from Chubut.
The first of the slaps began to take shape several weeks ago and the Casa Rosada, accustomed to playing on the edge, only yesterday proposed a solution to the issue to prevent the decree from landing in the chamber on Thursday. The move was proposed by the Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, in a meeting at the Casa Rosada chaired by President Javier Milei.
The action consisted of asking for a secret special session with the aim of removing the SIDE’s DNU from the official agenda. The request was received in the afternoon by the Senate and was received by Vice President Victoria Villarruel who submitted it to the consideration of the blocs.
Without the support of the UCR, the request of the Executive was allowed to remain in the minority and the DNU could be added to the session plan that was approved yesterday in the meeting of Parliamentary Work with the support of Kirchnerism, achieving the two-thirds necessary to implement the move. “The radicals turned around,” said government supporters in the corridors of the Senate in the afternoon.
Those who ate breakfast at the place were two emissaries of the Chief of Cabinet, Guillermo Francos: José Rolandi, Vice Chief of Executive Cabinet, and the Secretary of the Interior, Lisandro Catalán; and the Secretary of Strategic Planning, María Ibarzabal Murphy. Libertarians -with malice- said that they only came to “soak the bread” of the “victory” for the BUP. They argued that they were only there to finish fastening the law.
The SIDE DNU was issued on July 23, after the executive leadership decided to dissolve the AFI and restore the old SIDE. The decree gave $100 billion in reserved funds to the brand new secretariat that was left in the hands of Sergio Neiffert, who is linked to Santiago Caputo, Milei’s main advisor.
The second blow came from universities. The law not only increases the budget, but also includes a restructuring for teaching and non-teaching staff. This will generate a fiscal impact of 735.598 billion pesos, which implies 0.14 percent of GDP, according to the Congressional Budget Office (OPC).
The approved text establishes that the Executive Branch will have to update, from January 1, 2024, until December 31, 2024, on a bi-monthly basis, the amount of operating expenses of national universities based on the Consumer Price Index reported by INDEC.
According to the OPC, the update of 2023 items according to the CPI is 210.742 billion pesos; the bi-monthly adjustment of resources for 2024 is 86.254 billion pesos, while for salaries the funds range around 441.6 billion pesos.
In any case, the government has already warned that it could veto this law, as happened with the increase in pensions. If it proceeds in this way, the ruling party will be at the mercy of another massive mobilization, as happened at the beginning of April. At midday on Wednesday, there was a small dose of this with a demonstration by students in front of the Legislative Palace.
The bill was approved by 57 votes in favor, 10 against and one abstention. For the Casa Rosada, the 0.14 percent is an attack on the fiscal deficit policy that the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, is aiming for.
Single Ballot, the only victory for the Government
The approval of the project that proposes to implement the Single Paper Ballot (BUP) for the national elections, it is the only point that the Government can score in the marathon day. The vote was decided by 39 affirmative votes and 30 negative votes. If it becomes law, it would be implemented from the legislative elections of next year.
The legislative recovery of the BUP project occurred in the midst of the attempt by the Chief of Staff, Guillermo Francos, to eliminate the PASO, an initiative that had no consensus and that forced the Government to settle for the single ballot. The project has been partially approved by the Deputies since 2022 and will now return to that body due to the changes applied during the debate in the Senate.
According to this initiative, the National Electoral Chamber (CNE) will be responsible for designing the BUPs; while the National Electoral Boards will be in charge of adapting the ballot to the electoral offer of each district.
It will adopt the Mendoza model, a province where voting is carried out using this system, as well as in Santa Fe and Córdoba, with nuances in its formats. Meanwhile, the Ministry of the Interior, through the National Electoral Directorate (DINE) would be responsible for printing and distributing the ballots throughout the country.
Their landing in the electoral hemicycle was thanks to the fact that the Casa Rosada gave in to a change requested by Senator Mónica Silva (Río Negro) to leave the blank box with the option of voting for the complete list, which had been one of the demands of the provincial parties. In turn, they added the votes of the Misiones natives Carlos Arce and Sonia Rojas Decut.
In this way, the Government avoided breaking the virtual tie of 36 to 36 that froze the BUP for months after Kirchnerism had joined with its 33 senators to the minority opinion that Silva had promoted, in discontent with the full list button; something that was also supported by the missionaries.
In this context, Milei will appear before the plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies next Sunday to present the 2025 Budget. There she will kick off a new battle that the Rosada will have to fight against two legislative chambers that are experiencing, as never before, a deep fragmentation.
Source: Ambito
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