It was an almost mad Wednesday, the last one Buenos Aires. . The unions have called a general strike against the maxi liberal reform launched by decree by the new president Javier Milei and 130 thousand people took to the streets shouting "the homeland cannot be sold" and "we work to eat, but we don't just want to eat". Tension was very high throughout the day, and although no episodes of violence were recorded, while the country remained practically paralyzed from midday to midnight (not even essential services were guaranteed and almost all flights were cancelled) Milei was throwing petrol on the fire defining the "mafia" trade unionists, “corrupt” opposition politicians and “complicit” judges. Before strike in fact justice had also got in the way of the new president's project, suspending six articles of the decreed issued in December, all relating to the part on labor reform (one of which relating to the obligation to guarantee essential services during strikes). The judge Liliana Rodríguez Fernández considered that the conditions of urgency did not exist to justify the use of the government decree, bypassing the normal parliamentary debate.
Milei and his 664-article reform package
Milei, however, has no intention of giving up the bone: his 664-article reform package, which revolutionises not only working relationships but ranges 360 degrees from the economy to the institutions and the electoral system, will somehow have to pass. Although partly revisited, but not so much to please magistrates and unions, but to convince the allies of the former president's liberal party Mauricio Macri, without which the new president would not have a majority in Congress. After the initial impetus, in the wake of an election almost by popular acclaim, Milei is in fact falling back on a more prudent strategy, accepting the parliamentary confrontation. Precisely for this reason, he moved the deadline for converting his decree into law 31 15 from January to February and decided to present a lighter text to the attention of the House commission last Thursday, with 141 fewer articles.
The reforms and the package with the allies
And in fact the text has passed, waiting to be examined by the House in the next few days. The new package got the green light thanks to the compromise with allies: the president's personal party, La Libertad Avanza, has just 37 deputies out of 257 in the House and 7 senators out of 72 in the Senate, and to reach the majority and pass laws without forcing needs to ally itself with other formations, among which the main one is Macri's Republican Proposal and the candidate defeated in the first round of the last elections, Patricia Bullrich, now Minister of Security with Milei.
Milei and the export tax
Not only. Many regional governors are also Macrists, and did not like one of the points of the reform it included a 15% tax on exports of practically all production sectors, in particular those of the so-called "regional economies" (citrus fruits, cotton, yerba mate and tobacco, for example). For this reason, one of the points on which the ultra-liberal president has decided to give in is precisely that of taxation on exports: taxes will remain only on trade in soybeans, beef, wheat and corn, and some industrial products. The new, more streamlined package also renounces the highly contested extraordinary powers conferred on the executive: the initial text envisaged the possibility for the government to declare an unspecified "state of economic, fiscal, social, health, administrative or defense emergency ” and to act with special powers, effectively depriving Parliament of its authority for a period of two years, extendable for another two years. Practically the duration of an entire presidential mandate: the new text reduces this possibility to a period of one year, extendable by another year. For what concern electoral system, with a view to simplification Milei would have liked to eliminate the mandatory primaries (which are the ones that launched him towards the Casa Rosada in August): this point will instead be discussed in Parliament.
Argentina: work, pensions and privatizations
Then there's the whole part about work, pensions and privatizations, partly rejected by the judges and entirely contested by the unions and the Peronist opposition (which in Congress, net of alliances, still has three times as many seats as Milei's party alone): the president would like to liberalize and privatize everything possible , including 41 state-owned companies, some of which are strategic such as energy, but has considered delisting the YPF oil company and to grant the only partial privatization of Banco Nación, Nucleoeléctrica and the Arsat telecommunications company. The controversial article on the right to strike was also excluded, which Milei would have actually wanted to reduce to a minimum but which will be left to parliamentary discussion, also because part of the Labor reform was explicitly rejected by the Court: among the rejected articles are in detail those who sanctioned the stop to the Collective Work Agreement; the stop to trade union meetings in the workplace if they hinder the carrying out of normal activity; sanctions for those who prevent the activity of a factory and the entry of other workers; the explicit consent of the worker for the withholding of union contributions; the new rules on overtime working hours; and the obligation to provide essential services during strikes. On pensions, Milei wanted to abolish automatic increases and decide on increases only by presidential decree, but in the end the current system will remain, albeit with some adjustments.
Argentina: environment and culture
Finally, environment and culture, two issues that the new Argentine president would gladly do without, to the point that he has abolished the respective ministries. Instead, the articles that reduced the protection of forests and glaciers were cancelled, under pressure from some internationally renowned figures from the world of culture, including the Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, Milei has given up on turning off the taps of the Instituto de Cinema e Artes Audiovisuales (Incaa) and the Fundo Nacional de las Artes, which will therefore continue to provide public funds to support actors and artists. Milei's new challenge is therefore to normalize himself, also because if it is true that since he was elected the stock market has been booming, almost doubling its value (especially due to the huge devaluation of the peso), there is to seriously face a financial crisis that has never been so extreme, with the peso-dollar exchange rate now out of control and an inflation that in December, on a monthly basis alone, rose to over 20%, which means that the consumer price index has practically tripled compared to twelve months ago, in a country where 40% of the population lives below the poverty line: today, Argentina is the country with the highest inflation rate in the world, more than Venezuela .