(CNN Spanish) –– With 153 votes in favor, 87 against and 8 abstentions, the president of Argentina, Javier Milei, managed to ensure that the opposition did not overthrow his veto of the Retirement Mobility Law which weeks ago had been approved by the National Congress.
The regulations promoted by radicalism and later vetoed by the president sought to compensate for the loss of purchasing power of pensions for the elderly in the face of the inflationary jump of 20.6% in January, which had been partially accompanied by an increase in their pension assets. 12.5%.
After approval, Milei fulfilled his promise to veto it, as he had previously warned, but as established by the Constitution, the chamber of origin – in this case Deputies – had the power to annul the presidential decision and insist on its project.
However, this did not happen. After Milei’s veto, some deputies changed their position and this Wednesday they voted against what they had initially considered necessary. That is, they played in favor of the fall of the increase for retirees that they themselves had promoted.
The law, which sought to increase pensions by 8.1%, had achieved half approval in the Deputies at the beginning of June and its final approval on August 22 in the Senate.
In that last session, the only senators who voted against the increase in pensions were those from the official La Libertad Avanza bloc, which made it clear that, without the support of other parties, the Government has no chance of prevailing in the Parliament.
The government’s main ally is the PRO, the political force led by former president Mauricio Macri, who in addition to supporting the pension law in Congress, days ago had voted against the decree that grants millionaire funds reserved for intelligence. Some analysts consider that, in these two actions, Macri risked his participation in the Milei Government.
In fact, days later, after being invited by the president to dinner at the Olivos presidential residence, Macri expressed in his X account that he was in favor of the decision to veto the new retirement mobility formula that his own senators had approved. .
Finally, this Wednesday, deputies from the former president’s party supported the Government. But the PRO legislators were not the only ones who upheld the presidential veto or the most decisive aid.
Hours before the parliamentary session, a photo anticipated the end of the story: the one in which five deputies are warned of radicalism in the Casa Rosada, sharing a table with the president and his team. In the image you can see Martín Arjol, Luis Picat, José Federico Tournier, Mariano Campero and Pablo Cervi. In June, four of them had voted in favor of the law. This Wednesday, all five supported his rejection.
