The vice president Victoria Villarruel This afternoon he signed a joint resolution with his counterpart from the Chamber of Deputies, Martin Menemand ended up reversing the increase of almost 30% accumulated in the allowances of national legislators that had caused a strong controversy with the president Javier Miley.
The measure was adopted “at the express request of the President,” according to what was reported to THE NATION legislative sources close to the vice president, who until yesterday refused to give in to the demands of the Casa Rosada to review the increase granted at the end of February by linking the legislators’ allowances to the equal increase that the employees of the Legislative Branch received.
The controversy also left hurt Milei himself after it was known that Executive Branch officials had also received an even greater salary increase, close to 50%., than the one approved for national legislators. The gaffe ended up costing the Secretary of Labor the ejection from his position, Omar Yasin, whom the President ended up blaming for the increase for the head of State, the members of his cabinet, secretaries and undersecretaries of State.
The measure annuls the joint resolution, signed in 2011 by the then presidents of both legislative chambers, Beloved Boudou (Senate) and Julian Dominguez (Deputies), which linked the per diems and other concepts charged by national legislators to what was agreed upon in the joint negotiations of legislative employees. During the pandemic, national legislators were “disengaged” from these increases as a gesture in the face of the emergency situation, but that decision was eliminated in 2022.
With the increase decided at the end of February, the legislators’ allowances exceeded two million pesos after adding the increases arranged for January and February for legislative employees of 12 and 16% that both Menem and Villarruel had signed at the closing the last parliamentary joint venture.
The news came out a few hours after Milei spoke before the Legislative Assembly and repeated the mantra that “there is no money” as a justification for adjusting the State’s accounts. This provoked the fury of the head of state who publicly and furiously criticized the decision signed by the two libertarian leaders who lead both parliamentary chambers.
The presidential reaction led Menem to announce his intention to promote a bill to roll back the increase. After several twists and turns, the president of the Chamber of Deputies ended up signing a joint resolution last Friday, reversing the measure and sending it to Villarruel.
The vice president did not agree with Milei’s complaints and tried to resist the measure. However, she had to give in to the public pressure generated by the scandal that followed the measure and the need to not be confronted with the President.
However, Milei also did not come out well due to the raise scandal. While he criticized the opposition’s increase in allowances, it was revealed that executive branch officials had also received an improvement in their salaries, in this case higher than that ordered by parliamentary bosses for legislators.
It was the Kirchnerist deputy Victoria Tolosa Paz who accused the head of state of having carried out a “public staging” and have a “double summer” by criticizing the increase to the legislators and, at the same time, keeping silent that Executive Branch officials had received a 48% increase on the last day of February. By this measure, the head of state’s pocket salary had exceeded 4 million pesos.
“Do you know how much the salary of the President, the ministers, the secretaries and the undersecretaries of State increased? “It increased 48% between January and February”denounced the former Minister of Social Development on the social network X.
The information fell like a bomb on the Government and Milei’s first reaction was to blame the increase on a measure adopted during one of Cristina Kirchner’s presidencies.
“I have just been informed that as a result of a decree signed by former President Cristina Kirchner in 2010, which established that political officials should always earn more than public administration employees, an automatic increase was granted to the political staff of this government”, was the President’s statement.
Milei’s defense earned him a public controversy with the former president. “It made him braver President. It turns out that it is discovered that you and your officials increased their salaries by 48%. And you can’t think of a better excuse than to blame me for a decree I signed 14 years ago? I’d better not even tell you who it reminds me of, blaming a woman. You cannot get more chaste and less original,” was Cristina Kirchner’s harsh reply.
In the end, the head of state ended up backing down with the increase in the salaries of the Executive Branch. The novel concluded with the dismissal, this morning and from the studios of LA NACION + in a live interview, of the Secretary of Labor, Omar Yasín, for having approved the decree with the increases.
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