The statement from the President's Office
dropped like a bomb minutes before 7 p.m.
, in the middle of the parliamentary work meeting in the Senate.
Victoria Villarruel and the block leaders read it and the atmosphere became even more tense.
The head of the Senate expressed her
discomfort with the tone of the text
, which exposed the internal conflict between Javier Milei and the vice president, although
she did not manage to detonate the session
called for this Thursday or to remove the mega DNU from the agenda.
At the time when Villarruel and the senators were discussing, the Government expressed its “concern about the
unilateral decision of some sectors of the political class that intend to advance with their own and unconsulted agenda”
and pointed out against “the hasty treatment” of decree 70 /23 and a retirement formula “without consensus”, in the latter case an initiative of the Federal Coalition that had not met a quorum of the Deputies.
“They violate the spirit of agreement promoted by the President in his call for the May Pact,”
the text continued, with the warning that the rejection of the DNU “would entail a serious setback in the rights and needs of the Argentine people.”
In another section, he considered these attempts as
“short-term victories
,” which was also interpreted against Villarruel, “to the detriment of the future of the 45 million Argentines.”
As Clarín
reported
, in the Casa Rosada they criticized the vice president's decision to give in to pressure from Unión por la Patria and other opposition blocs and call the session to discuss the DNU.
“It is a very big risk
,” they alluded to the concrete possibility that Kirchnerism adds at least four senators and for the first time a Chamber rejects a decree to a sitting president.
In that case, in any case, the DNU will remain in force, because for it to be repealed, Deputies would also have to consider it invalid, a scenario with greater room for maneuver for the ruling party, although in any case it would be a resounding defeat for the Government.
At the parliamentary work meeting, Villarruel
proposed extending the treatment
of the DNU.
He argued that we had to continue debating and that it was part of the discussion of the so-called May Pact.
In part a discursive line with points in common with the Presidency statement.
The majority of the block leaders were opposed:
they assured that there was no room to continue with the postponement
, that the Senate was in debt and that the decree had to go to the chamber.
In addition to José Mayans and Juliana Di Tullio, from Unión por la Patria, the Peronist from Corrientes Camau Espínola and Lucila Crexell from Neuquén took that position.
Only the PRO supported the attempt to remove it from the agenda.
The tension between Milei and Villarruel had already been exposed with the increase in legislators' salaries, which the vice president intended to support but ended up giving in to pressure from the Casa Rosada.
When this Thursday's session in the Senate was confirmed with the DNU on the agenda, the Government fired the text to which ruling party sources largely attributed to Santiago Caputo, the extremely trusted advisor of the head of state.
Uncomfortable,
Villarruel claimed that she had no alternative
and that if the opposition gathered numbers against the decree, they would force the treatment even without her authorizing it.
“
There is going to be a session, with the DNU
,” confirmed Espínola as night fell, the first to leave the meeting on the first floor of the Senate.
He was accompanied by Mónica Silva from Rio Negro, also willing to provide a quorum.
In Kirchnerism they were confident that they would get the votes for the rejection.
The missionary Carlos Arce preferred suspense: “Tomorrow we will talk
.
”
The deputies of that province did not have a quorum to change the retirement mobility formula in Deputies, the same as those from Córdoba, which also opened a question about Senator Alejandra Vigo.
The radicals maintained the internal discussion.
In addition to the DNU, the agenda includes withdrawals from agreements, a modification in the Penal Code against money laundering, agreements with China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, and authorization for the President to leave the country.