‘A betrayal of the Argentine people’ – Milei’s fury at Senate pay hikes

President Javier Milei has slammed the decision by senators to increase their pay amid the ongoing economic crisis, describing it as a “betrayal of the Argentine people.”

The Senate agreed Tuesday to increase the pay of its members on the basis of the collective bargaining talks concluded by the trade unions of state workers, awarding 6.5 percent in two stages, thus taking senators wages up to a monthly nine million pesos.

The information was confirmed by Noticias Argentinas news agency in dialogue with senior sources from the Senate Presidency, who explained that Vice-President Victoria Villarruel did not agree with the decision to include senators in this resolution and tried unsuccessfully “to detach them from the increase.”

The first stage of the increase will be 3.5 percent retroactive to July 1, while the other three percent applying from August 1.

“This is a collective bargaining increase for everybody in Congress. We waited 20 days to sign it. We did not want to sign the increase for all Congress employees. We asked the senators to detach themselves from the increase. They told us no," indicated the sources.

They said that there was strong pressure from not only the trade unions but also the authorities from the Chamber of Deputies – and in particular Lower House Speaker Martín Menem – for the Senate to sign the increase so that there could be wage recovery for everybody in Congress

"That’s why we only signed up today because [the Chamber of] Deputies was asking us to sign,” said the sources.

“It’s the same increase given by the Executive Branch and despite notes presented by the senators, they were asked to back off and they said no,” insisted the sources close to Villarruel.

‘Betrayal’

True to his pugnacious style, President Milei held nothing back, blasting the senators.

“The Senate pay increase is a betrayal of the Argentine people,” he posted on the X social network. “Executive Branch salaries have been frozen since December 10. There has been no pay increase for Ministers, Secretaries or Undersecretaries and nor for me while I have further renounced my privileged pension. Why? Because this administration understands that the effort has to be made by politicians, not by tax-paying working people.”

“I express my utmost repudiation of the disgraceful pay increase which has just been awarded to the Senate. A short while ago they increased their own pay to seven million pesos but it seems that is not enough for them – today they increased their pay to nine million,” continued Milei.

“Who earns nine million a month? Nobody. While millions of compatriots struggle to emerge from the economic catastrophe generated by Sergio Massa, the Senate should empathise with Argentines and not pull their leg, increasing their pay every month. It seems that they do not understand that the money they receive comes from the taxes paid by all Argentines.

“Collecting nine million pesos in this context is more than a mockery, it is a betrayal of the working people. Once again the political caste refuses to let go of its privileges while the people suffer the consequences. I repudiate each and every signature enabling this squandering in favour of the politicians and against the Argentines,” he concluded.

Villarruel distanced herself from other recent controversial increases in the pay of senators which provoked Milei’s ire, explaining that it only applied “to the collective bargaining of the employees.”

“It is up to the senators to detach themselves or not from the collective bargaining of the workers. I only decide over the collective bargaining of the employees,” said the Senate head in a post on her Instagram account.

In another tweet, Milei took aim against Senator Martín Lousteau, who when raising his hand to approve the previous Upper House increase had complained that "a senator cannot earn the same as a bank clerk."

The resolution to increase pay was signed by the Senate authorities, administrative secretary María Laura Izzo and parliamentary secretary Agustín Giustinian and for the Chamber of Deputies by administrative secretary Laura Oriolo and secretary-general Diego Molina Gómez, as well as by the trade unionists Norberto Di Próspero and Fabián Zacardi (APL), Claudio Britos (ATE) and Martín Roig (UPCN).

– TIMES/NA/PERFIL