“Extortion block”: Milei’s message after the summit between governors and Francos | Cuyo’s diary

2024-01-30 10:17:15

After the meeting held by the Minister of the Interior, Guillermo Francos, and a group of governors with the aim of unblocking the debate on the Omnibus Law, Javier Milei once again strained the relationship with Congress by sharing a publication in which he accused to a sector of national deputies who are “extortionists” and want to “continue to make a living from the business of politics.”

The President retweeted a publication by the Buenos Aires senator from Together for Change, Joaquín De la Torre, in which he attacked Miguel Ángel Pichetto’s bloc and the radicalism sector that maintains disagreements with the mega legislation of the libertarian Executive Branch. “What the deputies of the ‘extortion bloc’ really want is to continue living from the business of politics. They had no problem giving extraordinary powers to CFK, Alberto and Kicillof. “They were always comfortable with the progressive and statist model,” launched the former mayor of San Miguel and former official of María Eugenia Vidal in the Government of the province of Buenos Aires. Milei established his position by retweeting De la Torre’s criticism.

The head of state’s new criticism against those he defines as “caste” occurs at moments of tension not only with the opposition, but also with Francos, since the Office of the President – Milei’s official communication – had to come out to clarify the facts about of an agreement between the dialogue blocks and the Minister of the Interior for the sharing of the Country Tax.

This Monday late in the afternoon, the official was present at the summit called by the governors of the UCR, the PRO and some non-Kirchnerist Peronists. The provincial leaders Nacho Torres (Chubut), Rogelio Frigerio (Entre Ríos), Leandro Zdero (Chaco), Gustavo Valdés (Corrientes), Marcelo Orrego (San Juan), Martín Llaryora (Córdoba), the vice-governor of Catamarca, Rubén Dusso, envoy by Raúl Jalil, a representative of Osvaldo Jaldo (Tucumán) and the head of the Buenos Aires Government, Jorge Macri, attended the Federal Investment Council (CFI).

Those who were also present were a group of legislators from the “dialogue” blocs: Miguel Ángel Pichetto, Nicolás Massot, Emilio Monzó, Oscar Agost Carreño, Ricardo López Murphy, and Carlos Gutiérrez for We Make the Federal Coalition, Diego Santilli and Damián Arabia for the PRO , Rodrigo De Loredo, Lisandro Nieri, Pamela Verasay and Soledad Carrizo for radicalism, as well as the members of Innovación Pamela Calletti, Agustin Fernandez, Alberto Arrua, Carlos Alberto Fernández and Osvaldo Llancafilo.

The central reason that drove the meeting was the debate on the funds required by the governors to compensate for the loss in provincial collections that implied the removal of the fourth category of the Income Tax by Sergio Massa, during his management as Minister of Economy. Given the disagreements in the discussion in particular of the articles, the Government communicated on Friday the decision to remove the fiscal chapter from the Omnibus Law. This involved removing annoying points for the heads of the provinces, such as withholdings on agriculture and industry, money laundering. But it also involved subtracting the law that reinstated the Income Tax.

In this framework, this Monday afternoon the governors asked the Minister of the Interior that the National Government agree to share a percentage of the PAIS Tax. In the provinces they consider that these funds can compensate for the loss due to Profits and they demand it to endorse the ruling party’s project in Congress. However, from the Casa Rosada they clarified that it will be discussed in the future.

“The Office of the President reiterates that the PAIS Tax and the rest of the fiscal package, previously included in the Law of Bases and Starting Points for the Freedom of Argentines, will be discussed later,” said the National Executive Branch, through the official Presidency account of the social network X, after Francos’ meeting with the governors.