The Argentine government has given in to the opposition and deleted more than a hundred articles from its mega law on state reform in an attempt to reach consensus in Congress. President Javier Milei has backed off his intention to call for up to four years of special delegations, removed the oil company YPF from the list of state-owned companies he wants to privatize and agreed not to impose export tariffs on agricultural production concentrated in the provinces far from Buenos Aires. With an extensive list of changes, the far-right government hopes its project to dissolve the Argentine state will find agreement with the special commissions examining it so it can go to a formal vote among MPs this week.
Congress has been debating in extraordinary sessions for two weeks the omnibus bill that Milei sent to lawmakers on Dec. 28 to fundamentally change much of Argentina's political, social and economic structure. The 664 articles of the original text have tensed the summer holiday period in Argentina, where society has debated with almost the same intensity as Congress the implications of a reform that emanates from the special powers of the executive to raise foreign debt without guarantee of the legislature or the decision by decree on the calculation of pensions, to the definition of the National Film Institute (INCAA) or a reform of the legal system so that judges have to wear a toga and a gavel during trials.
The reform had failed in Congress without finding a consensus: last Friday the deadline for the special commissions to decide on its adoption in the Lower House expired, and without receiving the necessary votes, Milei extended the deadline for by decree that same night the legislative periods. Argentina's Congress will meet again in March as usual, but has until February 15 to discuss the mega-law. The government hopes its new reforms will win the approval of the center-right blocs – former President Mauricio Macri's PRO, the centrist Radical Civic Union and a broad bloc of federal Peronists and splinters of minority forces – which would guarantee the approval of the project . in deputies.
Milei has agreed to shorten the period of “public emergency” under which he intended to give the executive branch legislative powers for two years, pending an extension for two more – effectively an entire hypothetical first term – to a single year, which is extended by another year depends on the vote in Congress. The ruling party La Libertad Avanza has removed state-owned YPF from the list of 41 public companies it wants to privatize and has accepted that others, such as Banco Nación or the satellite company ARSAT, will carry out “partial privatization”. while the government maintains its state control. The flagship airline Aerolíneas Argentinas, the railways, the post office and public media such as the Télam news agency could still be privatized. It has also accepted a change in the financing of pensions: the government wanted to give itself the power to decide increases by decree, now it is offering to maintain the quarterly increase due to inflation until March and, from April, a monthly adjustment of pensions according to the Consumer Price Index.
“We have not given in to anything, there are improvements that we accept,” said President Javier Milei on this Monday morning, who has repeatedly brought opponents onto the streets in recent weeks. Cultural workers have joined the protests against budget adjustments, which are currently driving workers, pensioners and tenants onto the streets. This Monday, the protests of filmmakers against the cut in funding of the INCAA or the closure of the national film school were confirmed by more than 300 producers, directors and actors from around the world, including the Spaniard Pedro Almodóvar and the Mexican Alejandro González. Iñárritu, who published a letter denouncing the “devastating, incalculable and irreparable impact” of the law on audiovisual production. “Either we use government funds to finance films that no one sees, or we use that money to feed people,” the president responded.
Following the publication of a new draft law, INCAA will maintain a specific allocation of funds and the government will reverse its intention to close the National Fund for the Arts, which finances scholarships for artists. The government has also agreed not to withhold tax on exports from agricultural producers in provinces remote from Buenos Aires, postponed discussion of its electoral reform until the regular sessions of Congress, and deleted one of the most controversial points of its law: it banned every assembly of “three or more people” in a public space is defined as an illegal demonstration – and violations of the protocol against protests are punishable by prison sentences. But he has doubled down on other things. Milei wanted to ban “political activities” – proselytizing or partisanship – by public officials and has now included all civil servants.
The government is confident that its law can be passed by the chambers of representatives this week to send the next bill to the Senate. Milei has said he hopes the House of Commons will discuss the project this Thursday, a day after the general strike called by the General Confederation of Labor, which will include the mobilization of unions and social groups at the doors of Congress.
The coincidence of the MPs' debate and the massive protest called for this Wednesday will serve as a measure of the social support with which the government justifies the implementation of its economic reforms. Although the Milei government is in the minority in Congress, it has been threatening for weeks that the adjustment for workers will be even greater if the rest of the political spectrum does not support its shock policies. With inflation reaching 25% last December alone, popular support on which the government relies appears to be faltering.
According to a study by the University of San Andrés, 40% of Argentines oppose Milei's economic policies. There is a rift that is being exposed: 38% agree with them. But when it comes to individual points of the mega-law, this study is succinct: up to 60% reject the privatization of state-owned companies, the transfer of powers to the executive branch, special permits for the government to take on debt or the reform of environmental laws. According to the study, the law's most popular measures have nothing to do with the economy: more than half of Argentines support charging public education for non-resident foreigners and easing penalties for uniformed officers engaged in “legitimate defense.” To abolish mandatory open primaries in elections or to change the divorce regime to simplify the process. These are the only measures that are supported by the majority.