2024-02-09 14:34:11
Argentine President Javier Miley has decided not to continue consideration of his government’s reform package bill in parliament after an unsuccessful vote. This was announced by the head of the “Freedom Comes” government alliance bloc in the Chamber of Deputies Oscar Sago, Day.Az reports with reference to TASS.
“The bill will no longer be considered in the form in which it was sent to Congress. <...> He [Милей] decided not to instruct deputies to resume discussions in the commission,” the deputy said on LN+ TV channel.
According to him, the president does not see any point in further changing the bill. At the same time, Sago did not rule out that the government will decide to carry out the planned reforms through parliament in the form of separate bills during the next session, which will begin on March 1.
On February 6, the Chamber of Deputies began considering the bill article by article after it was approved as a whole. The meeting was stopped after the rejection of clauses granting Miley special powers to act bypassing parliament. At the initiative of the Freedom Comes bloc, the document was returned for consideration by the parliamentary commission. The head of state called the deputies who voted against it criminals.
The Argentine government submitted the first version of the comprehensive reform bill to Parliament on December 28, 2023. The project, which contained more than 600 articles, included, among other things, a tax amnesty, the abolition of mandatory primaries, tougher penalties for blocking traffic during protests, the privatization of state-owned companies and an increase in export duties. On January 26, Economy Minister Louis Caputo announced that the government would exclude part of the economic reforms from the project in order to speed up the approval of other measures. The decision was made against the backdrop of a conflict with governors who opposed raising duties.