Deputies vote for Martín Menem as leader amid tension between La Libertad Avanza and PRO

Martin Menem is headed to be re-elected this Wednesday as president of the Chamber of Deputies in the midst of growing political tension with the PRO of Mauricio Macri. The yellow bench comes from denouncing an alleged agreement between the forces of heaven of Javier Milei in the venue and Unión por la Patria to frustrate the treatment of the clean slate project in exchange for the re-election of the Riojan as head of the Lower House.

Menem’s position has been sought by the PRO since the beginning of the administration when Macri unsuccessfully promoted Cristian Ritondo for that position. Karina Milei shielded the presidency of the Chamber of Deputies for La Libertad Avanza taking into account that it is a position in the line of succession to power and empowered Menem as one of the party’s national shipowners. In fact, this weekend they toured Neuquén together where the ruling party was legally constituted.

Deputies vote authorities

Next Wednesday at 2 p.m. the preparatory session will be held and, with some surprises, Menem would be re-elected by the deputies based on the support of the PRO, Civic Coalition, Union for the Homeland and Federal Innovationdespite Emilio Monzó’s intentions to displace the Riojan. Other authorities must also be ratified. Cecilia Moreau as first vice president representing the first minority (UP), the radical Julio Cobos as second vice president and the macrista Silvia Lospenato as third vice president.

It was precisely she who sparked the relationship between the PRO and La Libertad Avanza last Thursday when the treatment of the “clean record” project, of her authorship, which sought to prohibit candidates, without a firm ruling, but with convictions in the first and second instance, may appear on the electoral ballots.

The initiative was criticized even by the chief of staff, Guillermo Francos, who argued that the project seemed drafted to ban Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

Lospenato directly accused the ruling party of having a pact with Kirchnerism to exchange the rejection of a clean slate for the re-election of Martin Menem as head of the Chamber in the preparatory session this Wednesday. The tension escalated to such a point that Javier Milei called Lospenato by phone to promise him a new project with a clean slate but drafted by the Casa Rosada. But to this file is added distrust due to Milei’s decree that limited access to the public information law sanctioned during the presidency of Mauricio Macri as well as the initiative of the National Executive Branch to eliminate PASO, also resisted by the PRO.

Allies of Freedom Advances

Without calling for extraordinary sessions at the moment, with the regular sessions already over, La Libertad Avanza is going through a fragile framework of alliances in Congress. The thing is that the Casa Rosada withdrew from the negotiating table with the dialogue governors for the 2025 Budget and did not comply with the claims of the provinces related to the funds that correspond to them by the law of co-participation, as well as the debts of the retirement funds. not transferred, among other items.

The crisis also had an impact on the Senate where the head of the UP bench, José Mayans, mentioned the possibility of displacing Bartolomé Abdala from the provisional presidency when the preparatory session is held in February of next year. The crises with the governors, who in Deputies advanced all LLA initiatives, from the bases to the vetoes of universities and retirees, are now added to a climate of distrust crossed with Macri’s PRO.

“This week, the National Congress missed a historic opportunity to prevent corrupt people convicted by Justice from reaching Congress and guaranteeing impunity with the jurisdiction,” begins the publication of the bench led by Cristian Ritondo, which adds: ” While the PRO Deputies fulfilled the mandate that our voters gave us, the Government decided to be on the other side.”