“Don't be confused. They think they win, but they lose.” During Wednesday's debate, the evergreen neo-dialogue opposition MP Miguel Ángel Pichetto recycled the figure of the pyrrhic victory, knowing that the cards were already stacked and that the lower house was going to validate President Javier Milei’s veto of the university funding law.
He may have a point, if one takes into account the extraordinary mobilisations throughout the country in defence of state higher education. Or it may be a kind of consolation prize quote for the opposition that had hoped for this battle, which it had lost, despite the very large majority it theoretically has in Congress.
The government has long accepted the fragility, both quantitatively and qualitatively, of its legislative strength. Hence his focus on next year's midterm elections. That is why it pulls on the rope of its key ally, the PRO party, while taking care not to break it.
With the relationship at a low, Milei’s premium advisor Santiago Caputo last week held two separate meetings. First with former president Mauricio Macri, who reluctantly accepted that his dinners with Javier Milei will be sporadic. Once again, the PRO chair and the powerful libertarian consultant without official office found it difficult to reach broad agreements.
Caputo then received Cristian Ritondo, the head of the PRO caucus in the lower house Chamber of Deputies. This time, progress was made, not only regarding the vote on Wednesday. The door was opened for the yellow bloc to support the veto, in exchange for the government agreeing to be more flexible in its salary offer to university staff, even if only minimally.
Since without PRO it is impossible, but with solely PRO, it is insufficient, the ruling party once again activated the muscle it had already exercised with the ‘Ley de Bases’ law and the “87 heroes” who rejected pension increases last month.
This time there were 85 supporters of the veto, although there are a handful more if we add convenient abstentions and absences – functional moves for the government strategy. This support was once again nurtured horizontally by different portions of the main legislative parties: Peronists, Radicals and provincial government representatives.
From a base of almost 20 seats, the Executive branch achieved changes in positions that favoured it. La persuasión avanza.
Among them were five members of the UCR caucus who had shown their versatility with their veto of the pension increase. This time, four supported the veto and one abstained. Peronism made a contribution via its attached and autonomous governors. Among the former, votes in favour of the veto from the three deputies overseen by Osvaldo Jaldo from Tucumán should be noted. Or the absence, despite being in Congress, of a deputy answering to Governor Raúl Jalil from Catamarca.
The cooperation of the governor of Misiones, Hugo Passalacqua, who managed to get four of his legislators to rectify their initial support for the law and now abstain, was also key. Something similar from Santa Cruz's Claudio Vidal with one of his deputies too, who made a 180-degree turn from their previous position.
It was also striking that two absent deputies, who had helped to pass the law through Congress in August, were now absent for sudden health reasons. One, Córdoba lawmaker Alejandra Torres, who announced that she had Covid-19 though her colleagues in Pichetto's bloc had seen her appear as normal just the day before. The other, Yolanda Vega, from Salta, who felt unwell and fainted just before the vote.
President Milei had appealed to his entire political team in the last few days to achieve this result. Santiago Caputo, Guillermo Francos, Eduardo ‘Lule’ Menem and Lisandro Catalán, among others, were activated in a frenzy.
With caste chicanery, Milei once again got his way. He managed, once again, to shield his governance before Congress. His main officials differ from the Pichetto’s theorem – as good followers of the Carlos Bilardo school of thought, they believe that when you win, you win.
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