After days of debate, Argentina’s House of Representatives voted on Friday to give full approval to Liberal President Javier Millei’s sweeping “omnibus” reform bill, paving the way for a decisive vote in the Senate. Ta.
The controversial reform package was approved by a vote of 144 in favor to 109 against.
Members of the House of Representatives will also vote on the bill article by article, starting on February 6th, but general approval will likely mean it will be sent to the Senate in some form.
In recent days, demonstrators waving flags opposing Prime Minister Milais Millais’ reforms have repeatedly clashed with riot police deployed outside the green-domed neoclassical parliament building, at times hurling stones. .
The giant bill is a key component of Millay’s reform plan for Argentina’s struggling economy, which faces a ticking time bomb of over 200% inflation, depleting foreign exchange reserves and debt servicing from creditors and investors. .
The reforms that make up this bill range from economic policy to the privatization of state institutions. They are a key part of Millais’ efforts to deal with the South American country’s worst economic crisis in decades and stop the depletion of its national treasury.
The vote came after a long and heated debate in the House of Commons, with MPs from the main center-left Peronist opposition coalition Union por la Patria expressing strong rejection of Millais’ policies, while supporters asked not to block the bill.
Although Millay’s La Libertad Avanza party has only a minority of the 257-seat majority, it is still working with like-minded allies such as Juntos por el Cambio, a coalition of major centre-right parties, to advance the bill. We were able to gather sufficient support from our allies.
Milley’s government last week removed some of the divisive spending reforms in the finance section from the bill, a move that turned out to be a successful strategy to increase support for the government.
