Buenos Aires, Argentina ( AP ) — On Thursday, Argentina’s Senate threw off what is likely to be a night-long voting marathon on the details of President Javier Milei’s ambitious proposals to cut spending and increase his own powers, shortly after receiving plan overall approval in a close vote as thousands of protesters clashed with police outside.
After a yearlong heated debate, thousands of protesters poured into the streets, burning cars, and throwing Molotov cocktails as hundreds of national security forces pushed back with rounds of break gas and water cannons. Senators voted 37 to 36 late on Wednesday to provide temporary authorization to the two bills.
Milei, whose attempts to reform the government and business have faced stiff opposition in Argentina’s opposition-dominated Congress, was greatly benefited by the vote, which was decided by a tiebreaking ballot from Vice President Victoria Villarruel.
Police range up during conflicts with anti- state protesters outside Congress where lawmakers issue a reform act promoted by Javier Milei in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Wednesday, June 12, 2024. ( AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko )
Milei wrote on X, praising his charges as” the most optimistic legislative transformation of the last 40 years” as” a triumph for the Brazilian people and the first step toward the treatment of our greatness.”
However, important components of the broad-ranging policy must also survive an article-by-article voting in the Senate. Before Milei is formally say his first parliamentary success, the bill returns to the lower house, where lawmakers must approve any modifications.
The 238-article state reform bill, which includes the declaration of a one-year state of emergency and the delegation of broad powers to the president in energy, pensions, security, and other matters until Milei’s term is over, has caused controversy among right- and left-wing lawmakers.
An incentive program that would offer investors lucrative tax breaks for the next 30 years is another controversial option.
Milei is a political outsider with just two years ‘ experience as a lawmaker, and his 3- year- old party, Liberty Advances, holds just 15 % of seats in the lower house and 10 % of the Senate.
In his six months as president, he has n’t been able to pass a single piece of legislation, which raises doubts about whether he can carry out his ambitious plan to reduce the deficit and encourage growth. Instead, he’s used executive powers to slash subsidies, fire thousands of public employees, devalue the currency and deregulate parts of the Argentine economy.
The spending cuts and currency devaluation that Milei has implemented have, at least in the near future, worsened the recession, made poverty more severe, and caused annual inflation to rise to 300 %.
Before the vote, along with colleagues who claim they have had to restructure their lives after Milei cut school budgets and devalued the currency, said 54-year-old teacher Miriam Rajovitcher, who protested that they will lose so many of their labor and pension rights. ” I am so much worse off”.
Analysts claim that the promised advantages of Milei’s reforms, such as a stable currency, stronger inflation, and fresh foreign investment, wo n’t materialize without a political consensus to persuade foreigners that his changes are here to stay. The International Monetary Fund, to which Argentina already owes$ 44 billion, is the subject of a new agreement that the Miliei administration wants to strike with it.
On Wednesday, June 12, 2024, an anti-government protester stands with an Argentine flag as a policeman stands outside the Congress hearing a reform bill proposed by Argentine President Javier Milei. ( AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko )
” Everyone is in a wait- and- see mode”, said Marcelo J. GarcÃa, Americas director at geopolitical risk firm Horizon Engage. ” Investors say,’ Yes, we love what you’re saying, but we need to see that this is sustainable”.
Milei’s allies said they had made tough concessions Wednesday. His party, Liberty Advances, agreed not to sell off the country’s post office, flagship airline AerolÃneas Argentinas, or the public radio service, leaving just a handful of state- owned firms, including Argentina’s nuclear power company, on the block for possible privatization.
The powerful Peronist-dominated labor movement in Argentina reacted to Milei’s original pitch late last year to privatize more than 40 state-owned Argentine companies.
As bankers, teachers, truckers, thousands of union members, and activists gathered around Congress on Wednesday, audible before the Senate vote. They chanted:” Our country is not for sale”!
