News of lower house

Congress opens session on Milei's veto of university funding bill

09-10-2024 12:32 Argentina's lower house Chamber of Deputies will on Wednesday decide if President Javier Milei's veto of a law allowing greater funding to state universities will be upheld.

ELECTIONS

Lower house deputies approve single paper ballot in time for 2025 midterms

02-10-2024 15:42 More than two years after they first approved it, lawmakers in Argentina back the use of a single ballot paper for nationwide votes; Measure backed in a 143-87 vote with five abstentions.

POLITICS & CONGRESS

Double blow for Milei: Senate passes university bill, blocks SIDE cash

13-09-2024 11:04 Milei’s cash for spy services blocked as both chambers of Congress block presidential decree for first time since 1994; Senate approves law providing salary increases and boosting budget for universities facing funding “emergency.”

LA LIBERTAD AVANZA IN CRISIS

Arrieta jumps ship after leaking bills to free dictatorship criminals

28-08-2024 23:56 Amid controversy within La Libertad Avanza over the visit of pro-government deputies to criminals convicted for crimes against humanity at Ezeiza Prison, national deputy leaks draft bills and decree that aim to force through their release.

POLITICS & CONGRESS

Blow for Milei: Opposition teams up with PRO to block intelligence funds

21-08-2024 23:05 In a heavy blow for the Milei government, deputies in lower house repeal decree assigning over 100 billion pesos “to boost the national intelligence system” by 156-52 vote with six abstentions.

POLITICS & ECONOMY

President Milei hails ‘historic’ approval of his economic reform package

28-06-2024 14:22 President Javier Milei celebrates "historic" and "monumental" approval of his sweeping reform package by Congress.

Congress & Politics

Milei celebrates as Congress signs off on ‘Ley de Bases’ reform package

28-06-2024 09:31 Milei secures first legislative victory since taking office more than six months ago; Lawmakers in lower house back revised 'Ley de Bases' package with 147 votes in favour, 107 against and 2 abstentions. Bids to privatise Aerolíneas Argentinas, Correo Argentino and state media outlets left off bill, though income tax will be reinstated.

Congress & Politics

Milei wins approval for bold economic reforms in Argentina

28-06-2024 09:22 Argentina’s Congress approves President Javier Milei’s signature pro-business reforms, marking an inflection point for the outsider to govern with a hostile political class he continues to rail against.

CONGRESS & POLITICS

Milei’s reforms set to cross finish line in Congress

27-06-2024 19:26 President on the cusp of clinching his biggest political victory since taking office, with lawmakers likely to give final approval to two key proposals.

Congress & Politics

Congress set for final showdown on Milei's sweeping reform package

27-06-2024 12:01 Session scheduled to begin at midday and signs indicate the Milei government will secure its first legislative victory since taking office more than six months ago.

CONGRESS & POLITICS

Milei vows veto as deputies approve new pension formula

05-06-2024 10:20 Deputies rebel against government, voting 160-72 in favour of new formula to update pensions; President immediately vows to strike down bill should it clear Senate.

OPINION & ANALYSIS

Milei finally discovers politics

01-05-2024 22:33 President Milei appealed to dialogue and negotiation and obtained his first parliamentary triumph with the approval of his ‘Ley de Bases’ bill and accompanying fiscal package. The head of state has to persuade people of his ability to govern while in a minority. He is being watched by audiences in Washington and Beijing.

by Walter Curia

CONGRESS & POLITICS

Milei wins key lower house support for Argentina’s reforms

30-04-2024 13:25 Lawmakers approve expanded executive powers on administrative, financial, economic and energy matters, as well as the ability to dissolve dozens of special-purpose federal government funds.

Abortion rights

Lawmakers from Milei’s party send bill to Congress seeking to repeal abortion law

08-02-2024 09:47 Lawmakers from President Javier Milei’s party introduce bill to Congress that would repeal landmark abortion law passed in December 2020.

Congress & Politics

Milei's economic reforms stall in Congress, bill returned to committee stage

06-02-2024 21:55 President Milei's ‘omnibus’ mega-reform bill dealt major setback lawmakers in Congress prevented it from advancing; Bill was promptly returned to committee stage for a rewrite.

CONGRESS

Key test for Milei as lower house opens debate on ‘Omnibus’ reform bill

31-01-2024 12:24 Ruling party obtains quorum and debate begins on President Milei’s sweeping ‘Omnibus’ mega-reform bill; Session expected to last at least 35 hours as libertarian leader faces first true legislative test in the lower house Chamber of Deputies; Government confident it has the numbers.

Congress & Politics

Omnibus bill: Government pushes back lower house debate

24-01-2024 17:44 Government sources in the Chamber of Deputies, speaking on condition of anonymity, say that ruling party wants to push back debate on landmark bill until next Tuesday (January 30).

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Going to the dogs?

16-12-2023 07:20 This final election 2023 column concludes a series running the length of the campaign – now it’s time to detail the resulting political architecture in the present tense.

by Michael Soltys

ANALYSIS

New Congress will condition Milei’s bid for reform

08-12-2023 00:37 Javier Milei's radical reforms are likely to be heavily conditioned by Congress, with the libertarian leader's caucus a minority in both houses.

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Crouching tiger, hidden lion

28-10-2023 04:18 Fear of the unknown is such a conservative emotion that instead people ended up clinging to the status quo, inflation and scandals included.

by Michael Soltys

ELECTION 2023 – RESULTS

Peronists to be first minority in Congress as libertarians boost legislative numbers

25-10-2023 15:19 La Libertad Avanza has had only three deputies since the 2021 midterms, including the candidate himself, but that is all set to change. The libertarians have boosted representation dramatically in the lower house and its number of senators in the upper chamber.

Campaign comments

Expecting every voter to do their duty

21-10-2023 05:51 While tomorrow’s election is widely seen as a three-cornered affair (like the hats in the times of Trafalgar), all three of its fleets tend to believe that there are only two sides. Could tomorrow’s election echo the battle by ultimately leading to a breakdown of existing alliances with a new Argentina eventually resulting?

by Michael Soltys

'Ganancias' bill in Congress

Income tax bill clears lower house with support from Milei, left-wingers

20-09-2023 16:38 Bill to raise ‘ganancias’ threshold to 1.77 million pesos approved by lower house; 135 Frente de Todos, provincial party, leftist and libertarian deputies, among others, back it; 103 votes against, mostly Juntos por el Cambio.

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Santa Fe not so holy or faithful

15-07-2023 06:56 Turning to tomorrow’s PASO primary in Santa Fe, the mutual backstabbing within Juntos por el Cambio mentioned above is far from absent there – indeed nowhere else is the internal warfare more open.

by Michael Soltys

EDITORIAL

A parlous parliament

15-07-2023 06:53 Congress might be virtually ignored in this election campaign and yet its pivotal role should not be underestimated by any of the presidential candidates.

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

The elections according to Saint John

08-07-2023 06:59 San Juan is not an especially attractive city for tourists but it does have an uncanny knack for being a venue for key turning-points in Argentine political history.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

The men in the middle

01-07-2023 08:46 Hard not to read this as an unmitigated defeat for Cristina Fernández de Kirchner but those who see her as the ultimate political genius view this as a cunning move to leave Massa holding the baby for an inevitable national defeat while tightening her own grip on pivotal Buenos Aires Province.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Northwest by northeast

24-06-2023 01:22 We will have to await Chaco’s final provincial elections on September 17 to see how many degrees last Sunday’s political earthquake rated on the Richter scale.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Toward zero

17-06-2023 06:10 This is an election in which anything could happen – and also nothing, as is occurring in province after province. Pseudo-change in San Luis and a rock-solid majority in Tucumán attest to an underlying provincial continuity at all odds with a volatile national scenario.

by Michael Soltys

AND THAT REMINDS ME…

Of infighting and inland voting

10-06-2023 06:27 The deadline for defining electoral alliances nationwide expires in only four days’ time but tomorrow’s provincial elections are even more immediate … Tucumán is looking safe for the Frente de Todos government while San Luis could be close.

by Michael Soltys

Campaign comments

Umpteen candidates in search of an author

03-06-2023 06:08 If Horacio Rodríguez Larreta had again thwarted Mauricio Macri plans by imposing Fernán Quirós over Jorge Macri, this would have been three strikes and out in the PRO founder’s esteem – a hostility potentially fatal to the outgoing City mayor’s presidential ambitions.

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

A no-win election

27-05-2023 06:45 The fact remains that the last three people to run Argentina have all opted to sit this election out. The only question here is what lies behind their “fear to tread.”

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Under the volcano

20-05-2023 07:00 If three-quarters of the disenchanted in Tierra del Fuego preferred to vote blank than for an explicitly libertarian candidate, who is to say this might not be replicated nationwide?

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Three’s a crowd

06-05-2023 06:47 Tomorrow is Jujuy’s turn to go to the polls together with La Rioja and Misiones – can lightning strike twice?

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Out of the pink (house) and into the blue

29-04-2023 06:55 In a country where the urgent almost invariably displaces the important, Alberto Fernández’s premature entry into “lame duck” status has had immediate consequences.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

PRO or provincial?

21-04-2023 09:56 Does the end of six decades of one-party rule in Neuquén mark a new era for the province now and for the nation later this year?

by Michael Soltys

Campaign comments

April is the cruellest month

08-04-2023 06:02 The results of the local elections so far are puzzling – incumbents winning in often heavy turnouts when opinion poll after opinion poll is telling us that there are masses of angry and alienated voters out there.

by Michael Soltys

POLITICS & CONGRESS

Alberto and Cristina set for forced reunion at Congress

27-02-2023 13:18 Nine months after they last shared the stage at a public event, Argentina’s president and vice-president will be sat side-by-side on Wednesday at Congress as the legislative year gets underway.

by Rosario Ayerdi

Congress & Politics

Lawmakers head for early recess, leaving a host of pending bills

29-12-2022 00:10 With little chance of congressional activity resuming in the immediate future, Argentina's lawmakers are heading off for recess, leaving a host of bills pending.