05/11/2020 - 21:41
- Clarín.com
- Politics
After a new simulacrum of a session that was successful in general terms, the Senate is heading towards this Wednesday the first virtual session in the context of the coronavirus pandemic in Argentina.
The agenda will be made up of 20 decrees of necessity and urgency signed by Alberto Fernández linked to compulsory isolation and other emergency measures in recent weeks. Deputies will also seek to meet on the same day, although the opposition has not yet validated the procedure.
The test in the Senate was led by Cristina Kirchner and the Provisional President Claudia Ledesma and the vices Martín Lousteau, Maurice Closs and Laura Rodríguez Machado also attended.
Other legislators were in their offices and most were remotely connected. The identity validation system for both quorum and voting will be by biometric identification with the intervention of the Renaper.
Those present on the premises were located with three benches in the middle to take distance, during the two hours of audio and video check-up , and voting procedure for each senator. There were some sound problems.
The tests started at 14:30 with a technician in charge, and after 16:30 Cristina entered the compound and addressed the legislators. " Transparency is guaranteed, " he assured.
Remember the issue of non-reading and we are going to be very strict about the use of time. We are not going to have the bonhomia that we normally have when we are on the premises, who spend a few minutes and are allowed to continue because as the session continues, the right of other senators to speak will not be affected, ”said the vice president, and He added: "In this case, the duration of the session is determined in advance, that a senator is excessively taking away time and not allowing another senator to speak."
In Deputies remain modifications and the opposition endorsement to make a session also this Wednesday. After last week's flawed drill, Sergio Massa advanced on Saturday with round-robin tests to train and clear doubts from lawmakers. However, there was no trial with the 257 members. Referents of Together for Change asked to correct both technical issues and regulatory procedure, in the Modernization commission.
“Everything is subject to changes being agreed. The trainings were good, but they revealed the need to make adjustments to the system and the protocol, ”they transmitted from the UCR block. Among the issues to be corrected, the possibility of quitting a quorum during the session was not considered.
In a parliamentary work meeting this Tuesday afternoon-face-to-face, in the Delia Parodi room-, officials and opponents will seek to resolve the difficulties and in turn agree on a topic. If Wednesday's session is confirmed, it would be with consensus projects linked to benefits for health workers and security agents, such as exemption from Income Tax for those sectors. The bench led by Mario Negri will propose to leave other topics for future sessions, from assistance to SMEs to the emergency declaration for the tourism sector.
Unlike the Senate, in Deputies the session would take place with 41 legislators present in the precinct: authorities, block leaders and other members proportionally, according to the volume of each space.