Buenos Aires: Argentine Congress lawmakers on Tuesday returned the package of reforms proposed by Argentine President Javier Milei to parliamentary commissions for revision, Argentina’s Nacion newspaper reported.
On February 2, the lower house of parliament generally supported the package of bills proposed by Milei, excluding from it a significant number of provisions for further discussion and voting. At Tuesday’s session, lawmakers voted on individual articles of the bill.
The parliament’s legislative session was interrupted four times due to disagreements on the chapter of the bill on privatization of state-owned companies before being ended by House Speaker Martin Menem, the newspaper reported. In total, four of the five sections of the bill were rejected by the lawmakers, the report read.
The last of the rejected reform sections proposed “the complete or partial privatization or liquidation of manufacturing companies, societies, institutions, or estates whose property is owned in whole or in part by the state.”
Following the session, Milei blamed governors for his reforms being sent back for revision, adding that they had decided to “destroy” the bill.
“They have decided to turn their backs on Argentines and prevent the government from getting the tools to solve Argentina’s structural problems… The law will return to the debate when they realise that it is the people who need it, not the government,” the president’s press office said in a statement.
In December 2023, President Milei signed an emergency decree proposing over 300 reforms in all economic and social sectors, including the extension of the probationary period for workers to eight months, the elimination of several fines for employers, and the abolition of the unemployment insurance fund. The country’s unions have challenged the proposals in court. The reforms also sparked numerous protests in the country.
