by The fight by Javier Milei’s DNU remains open in Congress. Union for the Homeland of the Senate has just failed in its attempt to meet to overturn the decree: the bloc requested that a session be called, but Vice President Victoria Villarruel refused.
“Kirchnerism has to understand that there is a change of era. Argentines chose a path. And The Senate agenda is no longer dictated by Kirchnerismbut the dialogue and participation of all senators,” he stated.
But the truth is that Villarruel and the Peronist bench are in a situation unprecedented technical tie. The officialdom cannot move forward to declare the presidential decree valid and UxP cannot move forward in its attempt to declare it invalid.
The problem for both is the same: neither has, today, the votes it needs for its political strategy.
The officialdom probe In recent weeks in the dialogueist opposition blocks there was a desire to approve the DNU on the premises. I didn’t find an echo.
There are opposition sectors that are willing to collaborate with the Government, but not at the cost of immolating for a decree that they questioned as soon as it became known and that, they understand, advances legislative powers.
La Libertad Avanza has only 7 senators of its own in the Senate. Needs fishing 30 in other blocks to have a quorum and be able to meet.
If this is achieved, the majority approves it and the DNU is valid. To fail, the decree must be rejected by both houses of Congress, something that has never happened until now.
Last Thursday, the UxP bench asked Villarruel to call a session to discuss the DNU. Under the argument that the Senate regulations enable her as president of the upper house to set a date and time for the session, Villarruel did not convene.
“We demand from the vice president Don’t close the Senate“She has to immediately call the DNU for treatment,” stated the head of the bench, jose mayas. The decision of the bench is to request a session every week from now on. This week they will do it again.
All in columns?
Although there were some absences at last Thursday’s meeting, in the block led by José Mayans and the Cristinista Juliana Di Tullio They assure that their 33 senators are columned in the position of voting against Milei’s decree.
But there was speculation in recent days about what senators would do to respond to the governor of Santiago del Estero, Gerardo Zamoraand to the Catarmarca native Raul Jalil. Even more: in parliamentary settings surprise that on Friday a deputy from the Santiago scheme has absent of the vote on the Omnibus Law.
If it actually has its 33 senators, the UxP bench still needs another 4 senators to meet. In Kirchnerism they are ambiguous, but They imply that perhaps they are close to having that number.
That was one of the reasons, beyond the argument that they would not allow Kirchnerism to set their agenda, for Villarruel to decide not to call the session they requested. With open ending, would risk facing a huge political defeat.
The other reason why he did not call a meeting was because doing so would have implied expose politically to the senators of the dialogue opposition who publicly question. How would it be? ¿They criticize on TV and then when you want to discuss it in a session they don’t come down?
Among senators from opposition blocs, however, they accuse their Peronist peers of seeking to expose them. “Why did they ask for a session if they didn’t have the number? To make public who came to the session and who didn’t. There are several of us who are against the DNU but we are not going to be functional to the Kirchnerism strategy,” says a member of an opposition bloc.
More. A senator from another party maintains that UxP requested the session “just to look good with the CGT. From the outset they knew they didn’t have the number.”
The Federal Unity bloc, made up of dissident Peronists Alejandra VigOh, Edgardo Kueider and Carlos EspinolaThey are currently working on drafting a note addressed to the Presidency of the Senate to request that he call a session to discuss a series of issues, from the entry and exit of troops from the country to the reform of the DNU law and the megadecree. by Milei.
They will not put the date and time on their note because they understand that this is a Villarruel faculty, but they will ask that it be “brevity”. Kueider, for example, already described “unconstitutional“The President’s decree.
The ruling party defines a strategy
At the same time, the ruling party is looking for a way to prevent the DNU from reaching the premises at some point. Last week, through a statement, the La Libertad Avanza bloc of the upper house asked the Chamber of Deputies to “as soon as possible” appoint its members to the bicameral Legislative Procedure, the commission that deals with the validity of presidential decrees.
Its formation has been blocked since December. The 8 senators who will make it up have already been named, but Deputies need to do the same. The curious thing about the LLA statement is that the president of the lower house is also a libertarian, from Rioja. Martin Menem.
One of the strategies that the ruling party will appeal to is to prioritize for treatment in the bicameral the “more than 100 decrees” that are in force and that were signed by Alberto Fernandez. Only later would she turn to Milei’s.
An idea that they are also analyzing in LLA is to take a bill presented in December by the radical senator carolina losada. Their initiative consists of treating the same content of the megadecree as a mirror law.
Although a handful of articles were suspended by Justice, many of the modifications to Javier Milei’s DNU are and will remain in force unless both houses of Congress declare it invalid.
