Governors’ quarrel over the Budget: “There was never the will to negotiate”

After a turbulent week in Congress, which included the fall of the sessions where the “union democracy” initiatives were to be debated, Ficha Cleana and the DNU that enables Luis Caputo to take on debt without legislative endorsement, among others, a good part of the ecosystems of support and opposition were exposed in the venue, where not only the political parties played, but the hand of the governors was also seen.

The sequence of encounters and disagreements between Javier Milei and the provincial heads currently have a central axis: the re-election of Martín Menem as president of the Chamber of Deputies. That party will be defined this Wednesday, and although the official candidate has the chance to win, the truth is that the last word has not yet been said. The tug-of-war goes on during these hours to define who will be the ones who will occupy the vice presidencies around the libertarian leader. At Casa Rosada they assure that, once the position is secured, they would call for extraordinary ones.

Budget: resignation and anger of governors with the Nation

Regarding the Budgetthe provinces seem to have resigned. “There is nothing. The Government has no interest in negotiating, they want the Budget to be treated as a closed book, like a notary’s office. That is not going to happen,” they commented to Scope from the orbit of the governors of the extinct Together for Change (JxC). “There was never any interest in removing him nor were any negotiation spaces opened,” They added from a provincialist management.

Both opponents and allies of the Government agreed on this point. “We do not see that the Government has the vocation to put the Budget on the agenda. We made attempts to reject DNU 846, something that forced the Government to open the budget debate. There were some who did not understand it,” they lamented from Peronism.

The five-point document, agreed upon by chiefs of all the teams, fell on deaf ears due to the indifference of the Nation. Specifically, the list included claims for pension funds, debts from the 2017 fiscal consensus, the need to share the fuel tax and the elimination of hierarchical positions of the exAFIP.

This Tuesday, the person who referred to the issue was the head of the Buenos Aires Government, Jorge Macri. “Not having a Budget is a problem and it is not good for Argentina. Maybe the market does not see it well, institutionally it is not the best that we do not have a budget for two years, I hope there is an extraordinary treatment and it is a reasonable budget,” he explained. .

In the legislative arena, deputies from blocs seeking to discuss the “law of laws” targeted the provincial leaders. “The governors surrendered and there are no votes today, so I don’t think there will be anything extraordinary about that. We can’t insist because we lack votes, without the governors’ deputies we won’t have the fuel. We’ll see in March,” warned a voice that pushed the debate.

“The Government continues without giving signals, its plan is the free availability and arbitrariness in the use of funds. To the extent possible, we are going to insist. The executive has to come to its senses… it will surely need the Congress and that will be our opportunity to rethink it,” They expanded from a federal bench.

In this way, a scenario is configured with which some governors sympathize more than others: The items will begin to be negotiated bilaterally between the districts and the Casa Rosada. This situation would benefit those provinces with greater legislative, economic and productive weight and would isolate others of smaller size. In addition, it would allow Milei to run against the tough opponents of Unión por la Patria (UP), who do not maintain regular dialogue with the ruling party. That list is headed by the Buenos Aires native Axel Kicillof.

“It is financially in the interest of the Government to redirect the Budget. They can do whatever they want, basically, if they redirect it, but the stability and public balance plan that they had declared falls apart. Furthermore, they would sacrifice the message to the markets,” They graphed from Peronist land.

Discretionary funds

Along with the fight, a report from Politikón Chaco revealed that, during November, lhe City of Buenos Aires once again concentrated the largest portion of discretionary fund transfers, with 56% of remittances accrued and 59% of those paid. In that instance, it received $103,643 million and 81% of that total corresponds to payments for co-participation debt. Much further away, in terms of participation, were Buenos Aires (11.5% accrued and 16% paid) and Misiones (4.3% accrued and 4.0% paid), which are the provinces that make up the podium.

At the same time, administrations close to the Government were favored by the Contributions from the National Treasury (ATN): Salta, $6,000 million; Jujuy and Catamarca, $3,000 million each; Tucumán, $4.5 billion; and Jujuy, $4,000 million.

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Weeks ago, the Nation shied away from the possibility of calling the allied leaders to dialogue as well as the heads of the closest blocs. However, they mentioned that it should not be surprising to see some chiefs in the Casa Rosada. In fact, that’s how it was. The Fuegian Gustavo Melellaone of the most belligerent with LLA, visited Balcarce 50, where he met with the advisor Santiago Caputo. The man from Corrientes did the same thing days later Gustavo Valdesof the Radical Civic Union (UCR). The pampas Sergio ZiliottoMeanwhile, he held a meeting with the deputy chief of staff, Lisandro Catalán.

In the next few hours, the governor of Tucumán will also disembark in the Federal Capital, Osvaldo Jaldocentral ally of the ruling party. The excuse will be to advance with the Nation in the Tucumán version of PROCREAR, which contemplates the construction of almost 3,000 homes on 100 hectares strategically located in the province, as Ámbito said. In the middle of the month, the northerner had signed a letter of intent for the province to absorb the program dissolved by the libertarian administration.