After the commotion
generated
by the 30% increase in legislators' allowances - and the questioning it provoked even from Javier Milei himself - the president of the Chamber of Deputies, the libertarian
Martín Menem
, signed a resolution to
roll back the allowances
of the deputies and senators.
And he turned the resolution so that his Senate counterpart,
Victoria Villarruel,
would also accompany it .
But the vice president
did not sign it nor will she
, according to official sources
told
Clarín .
There are several issues behind the decision.
They speak of an interference by the Executive Branch (due to the President's claim) in the Legislative Branch, of the loss of purchasing power of the senators' salaries in the face of high inflation and that even the Government granted raises to its officials.
"The climate is very irritating,"
they say in the ruling party, a phrase that gains weight, especially taking into account that Javier Milei himself had to announce that he will cancel the increase that he and his ministers had.
But
the most important axis is political:
according to what the vice president's side understands, freezing the increase in the senators' allowances
would generate an earthquake
in the Upper House, a territory in which the ruling party has enormous
weakness
and Peronism is the first. minority, with 33 senators of its own (just 4 missing for a quorum).
According to what is interpreted by the Senate Presidency, if Villarruel supported Menem's resolution, what would possibly happen is that even the senators who today play as close allies of the ruling party would end up
rebelling.
They even manage a scenario: that the senators themselves call a session and self-regulate the diets.
They say that
the regulations enable it.
"Villarruel is the president of the Chamber, but the Senate belongs to the senators," they argue.
Senate FdT bench.
Photo: Federico López Claro.
This Tuesday there is a Parliamentary Labor meeting called in which Villarruel and the heads of all the blocks will discuss what to do with the allowances.
The call indicates that it will be a joint decision and not just the president of the Senate.
Behind the political factor also weighs the eventual treatment of the Emergency Need Decree of
Javier Mile
i of last December and which modifies more than 300 laws.
The Frente de Todos bench, which brings together Peronists and Kirchnerists,
intends to go to the venue this Thursday to vote on the rejection of the megadecree
.
If this is achieved, it would be a blow for the administration of Javier Milei: until now they have never issued a DNU to a sitting president.
The ruling party in the Senate is
working to prevent the FdT from achieving a quorum
in that eventual session.
Negotiations are difficult for different reasons.
On the one hand, because La Libertad Avanza has a bloc of only 7 senators.
On the other hand, because
there are 39 senators who do not respond to any governor and another 8 who sometimes do what the governor of their province asks of them and other times, they do not
.
Thus, the negotiations are one by one, when the usual thing in previous administrations was to speak directly with the political bosses of the senators.
"Ensure governance"
Rolling back the increases in the allowances would generate greater tension in the Senate, which could favor - the ruling party alleges - for Peronism to have a quorum to deal with the rejection of the DNU.
"Victoria's objective is to guarantee governability to the Government, her decision aims to benefit the Executive Branch," they maintain close to the vice president.
They insist that going back on the salary increase would be
"dynamiting everything"
with the allied blocs and would also imply a loss of authority for Villarruel.
Despite Villarruel's efforts, one wing of the Government does not seem to care too much that the DNU falls.
This was admitted by at least one front-line official to
Clarín
.
Could the rejection of the decree plus the increase in allowances serve as a strategy to demonize Congress?
At least that is what sectors of the ruling party interpret.
Victoria Villarruel.
Photo: Federico López Claro.
On the other hand, and according to what is heard in the LLA bench of the Senate, what is sought is to prevent Villarruel from
"rifing his authority as Menem did first with the Omnibus Law and now with the allowances."
The salaries of the senators are above $2 million. The deputies earned a net amount of $2,174,887 for the month of February, to which we must add what is received for uprooting, which reached $464,090.29.
In January, the allowances were at $1,699,000 and $323,789.25, due to uprooting.
The senator for Formosa
José Mayans
, president of the Peronist caucus, presented this Friday a project to equate the salaries of the three branches of government, extrapolar bodies, decentralized bodies of the National Public Administration and state companies and companies.
The initiative speaks of "
equity."
Mayans proposes setting a maximum limit on the receipt of salaries of the highest authorities of the national public sector.
He establishes that remunerations cannot exceed 20 minimum wages "for all reasons."
For lower-ranking officials, the project stipulates the equivalent of 15 minimums.
As of this month,
the minimum wage is $202,800.
The disparity in the State is enormous: according to what they say in the Senate,
a House judge earns more than $10 million per month.