Argentina’s congress deals setback to Javier Milei’s reform bill

Javier Milei’s libertarian party has suddenly withdrawn its sweeping reform bill from the floor of Argentina’s lower house, accusing opposition lawmakers of “betrayal” in a major setback for the president’s legislative agenda. The lower house, where Milei’s La Libertad Avanza coalition controls fewer than 15 per cent of seats, had voted to approve the base of Milei’s “omnibus bill” last Friday. However, opposition lawmakers rejected several crucial proposals at an article-by-article vote on Tuesday, including an expansion of presidential powers to set some economic policy. LLA said on Tuesday evening it would send the bill back to committees for further debate. Milei’s interior minister, Guillermo Francos, said lawmakers had “committed votes they did not then deliver” and that “the law was losing its essence”.

Milei, an irascible former television commentator who founded his party in 2021, has long faced questions about how he would build congressional majorities to govern and to enact his plans to slash spending and economic regulations in Argentina. The government’s “incendiary rhetoric” is “a bad sign for the bill’s eventual approval”, said Eugenia Mitchelstein, associate professor of politics at Buenos Aires’ University of San Andrés, noting that it is unusual for legislation to return to committee at this stage in Argentina. LLA had already dramatically scaled back the bill, removing more than two-thirds of its original 664 articles, to win over centrist lawmakers.

It still includes measures such as a green light to privatise two dozen state companies, strengthen penalties for road-blocking protests and relax some environmental protections. LLA’s move annuls last Friday’s vote and means the entire bill will return to committee before a second attempt to approve it in the lower house. “If the government was trying to demonstrate its political ability to build agreements, this is a very grave result,” said Juan Cruz Díaz, managing director of Argentina’s Cefeidas political advisory firm. “But it seems the government’s [strategy] is to openly confront the governors and congress, as a way of reinforcing the narrative that it is standing up to the political establishment and thereby increase its popular support,” Díaz added. “It’s a risky move, though not unexpected.”