2023-12-29 21:08:00
From the electoral system to the collection of taxes, including the privatization of all state-owned companies in sectors as varied as water, mail, air and rail transport… no area escapes this so-called “omnibus” bill.
The government’s objective is clear: to deregulate all parts of the economy, and more generally the lives of Argentines, by reducing state intervention to a minimum. But the text, called “basic law and starting points for the freedom of Argentines” also reveals an anti-democratic temptation of the new power.
“Whoever votes for this law, votes for dictatorship”
The government is in fact proposing to declare a state of “public emergency” in many areas (economy, taxes, finances, pensions, energy, security, tariffs), which would allow Javier Milei to govern without parliament until the end of his mandate. In line with the tightening of security initiated by the new government, the law also threatens the right to demonstrate. If it is adopted, demonstrators who block traffic will face up to three and a half years in prison, with sentences of up to five years for “those who organize or coordinate the gathering”.
“Whoever votes (this law), votes for dictatorship” warned Myriam Bregman, lawyer and left-wing candidate in the presidential elections, as parliament prepares to examine this text during extraordinary sessions convened until 31 January.
Its publication comes against a backdrop of social protest, a week after the promulgation on December 20 of a highly criticized “mega decree”. Also extensive (more than 300 measures), it establishes, among other things, the end of rent control and price controls in supermarkets, the modification of the compensation system in the event of dismissal and restricts the right to strike .
“Down with the decree!”, “General strike”, “The homeland cannot be sold” could be read on the banners of different social organizations on December 26 in front of the courthouse. In the compact crowd (between 20,000 and 25,000 people according to the CGT) the concern was palpable. “The deputies must stop this guy from ransacking and selling our country,” implored Alejandro, in his thirties. This mathematics professor hopes that the “mega-decree” will be invalidated by Congress and the Senate, the only means provided by the constitution to have it annulled.
In Argentina, Javier Milei already tested in the streets: “Milei believes that he can do what he wants with Argentina, that people will let him do it”
Legal action
But the calendar currently works in favor of the executive. Despite the mobilization, the decree was officially promulgated on December 29 without passing through parliament, currently in summer recess. According to the daily La Nacion, even if parliamentarians from both chambers united to repeal the text, this should not happen before March 2024, when ordinary sessions resume.
There remains the legal route. More than twenty appeals to suspend the “mega decree” must be examined by the courts. According to the Argentine constitution, this exceptional legislative instrument must be justified by the executive as “necessary and urgent”. However, for the constitutionalist Andres Gil Dominguez, who published a long analysis of the text on the X platform, “It is a clear attempt to accumulate public power which is not linked to an emergency situation objective, only to the need to impose a political project”.
Regarding the “Omnibus Law”, the lawyer believes that it is akin to a “disguised attempt at constitutional reform”. In parliament, where Javier Milei’s party “Freedom Avance” does not have a majority, tension is rising. No date has been set for the vote, but the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Martin Menem, told the Infobae website: “Everyone must understand that not only does Argentina have no money , but she has no time [à perdre] neither”. The executive, which is banking on the adoption of the law by the end of January, will also have to face the streets: the CGT has already called for a national strike on January 24.
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