President Javier Milei has suffered a huge setback in his quest to reshape Argentina in his image after the Senate overwhelmingly rejected his two nominees for the Supreme Court.
After a six-hour session in the upper house on Thursday, senators voted against Milei’s nominations of Manuel García-Mansilla and Ariel Lijo to fill two vacancies on the nation's highest tribunal, the latest chapter in an 11-month soap opera.
The government needed the support of two-thirds of the upper house to approve the candidacies, but with just seven senators of its own to rely on, the numbers were clear.
García-Mansilla's nomination received 51 votes against, 20 in favour and zero abstentions, while Lijo's nomination received 43 votes against, 27 in favour and one abstention.
The future of both now remains in limbo.
García-Mansilla, who joined the Supreme Court last month until November on Milei’s orders, was swifty banned Thursday by La Plata Federal Judge Alejo Ramos Padilla from delivering rulings while in his post. It is thought he will not continue to serve, as his decisions could be challenged legally.
Lijo, who did not resign his position as a federal judge prior to the vote, will likely continue to serve at the Comodoro Py courthouse in Retiro, Buenos Aires.
Both nominations had been filed by Milei last year. But after failing to win enough support in the Senate, he attempted to impose them unilaterally.
Impose
Milei attempted to impose both candidates on the Supreme Court in late February, a move that was fiercely rejected by opponents and many of the ruling party’s allies.
Exploiting an article in the Constitution that allows the President to appoint justices "in commission" until the end of a legislative period, he issued a decree to bypass lawmakers.
Underlining the cross-party rejection of that move, senators who respond to both rival former presidents, Cristina Fernández Kirchner and Mauricio Macri, offered quorum Thursday and then coincided in their rejections.
The Milei administration will now have to go back to the drawing board and draw up its next move.
In an angry statement issued minutes after Thursday’s vote, the government branded the Senate an “blocking machine,” accusing it of “obstructing the future of Argentina.”
“During the past year the senators had at their disposal the nominations of Drs Manuel García-Mansilla and Ariel Lijo, participating in every instance of the process of selection established by the prevailing norms,” read the communiqué.
It accused senators of having “dragged out the voting for months,” giving priority to “their concern for the judicial cases facing their leaders” over normalising the top court, thus affecting the institutional functioning of the Judiciary.
The government claimed that this was the first time in history that the Senate had rejected presidential Supreme Court nominations “for merely political reasons, which, it argued, “shows once again that the Upper House is the refuge of the political caste in Congress.”
“Converted into a blocking machine, the Senate is not acting in favour of the people with obstructing the future of the Argentine nation its only aim,” fired off the communiqué.
The President’s Office maintained that “politicising justice represents a threat to democracy,” warning that while the political leadership seeks to protect itself penally, “the right to justice will continue limited.”
Finally, the government ratified that President Milei “will continue working tirelessly to guarantee judicial Independence and restore people’s confidence in the institutions, using all the tools which the National Constitution and the popular vote have placed in his hands.”
‘Blocking machine’
Throughout the day, the Casa Rosada had sensed the final result. Last-minute negotiations to change the fate of the vote were of no use, nor was the chance to stop the session by decree, as the ruling party had suggested at midday, successful.
What's more, the government considered that if today's session was suspended, they would have an adverse result at the next parliamentary session.
The session, headed by Kirchnerite Senator Silvia Sapag (Unidad Ciudadana-Neuquén), got underway at 2.15pm.
The opposition achieved quorum with the minimum number of 37 of the 72 senators, consisting of 32 Peronists, two Radicals (Martín Lousteau and Pablo Blanco), two PRO senators (Alfredo De Angelis and Victoria Huala) and the expelled libertarian Francisco Paoltroni from Formosa with the latter quintet compensating for the absences of two Peronists, Carolina Moísés (Jujuy) and Marcelo Lewandowski (Santa Fe).
The opposition gained strength when it became known that – for once – Fernández de Kirchner and Macri were agreed on an issue, with both urging their caucuses to grant quorum and vote against the Supreme Court nominations.
Once the magic number had been achieved, the 37 senators were joined by their colleagues from La Libertad Avanza (LLA) and the provincial parties, as well as the remaining UCR Radical and PRO senators.
The caucuses quickly agreed to limit the session to the Supreme Court nominations, postponing the issue of senatorial salaries until mid-April.
Stretching limits
During the debate, Senator Martín Lousteau (UCR-City) affirmed that the Milei administration is stretching the limits of the Constitution "like chewing-gum," also referring to the interview interrupted by presidential advisor Santiago Caputo.
"I cannot believe that there is a single senator willing to vote for this aberration," declared Lousteau. "If we allow this mechanism we will not have more judges, we will have employees of the Executive branch."
"Here we are voting on the mechanism of appointment. Whether it should be a woman or not are just excuses. No candidate can become a Supreme Court justice if they accept being decreed," he said.
Lousteau also took Milei to task for voting against renewing the debt agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) when a deputy in 2022 and now asking for a loan.
"The President claims that there are judges in a period of testing. If the government does not continue and if one judge can be changed for another by another decree, can anybody speak of an independent Supreme Court?" he concluded.
PRO Senator Guadalupe Tagliaferri (PRO), in her rejection, questioned the decision not to nominate a woman for the currently all-male court.
Vice-President Victoria Villarruel, who leads the Senate, was not present for the debate. She had earlier clarified that she would not be heading the session by virtue of being acting president, with Milei out of the country that day in the United States.
"Given the manoeuvres of the caste and the old politics, it does not seem unnecessary to explain that given Milei’s trip to the United States, I am the acting President so that the Senate session will be headed by the provisional president of the Senate, Bartolomé Abadala (LLA-San Luis),” Villarruel said via social media.
– TIMES/NA/PERFIL
Comments