Not everything went as he hoped, but at least he achieved what he couldn’t do during his two years as president: Javier Milei was finally able to celebrate the approval by Congress of a budget for next year. With 46 votes for and 25 against, the Argentine Senate approved the budget law for 2026 this Friday, but without adaptations for universities and for the care of people with disabilities that the ultra government promoted. The result was an expression of the parliamentary power that La Libertad Avanza – Milei’s party – acquired with its recent victory in the midterm elections, which it won with 40% of the vote. “Long live freedom, damn it,” is the message that the president published on his social networks to celebrate this approval.
Milei’s budget, with which he aspires to continue applying his chainsaw to the state, foresees total expenditures for 2026 of 148 trillion pesos (approximately 100 billion dollars), with an increase in GDP of 5% and annual inflation of 10.1%. These official estimates are far from the projections of private consultants (they count on growth of 3.2% of GDP next year) and the inflationary deceleration actually achieved by the government until now (the cumulative rate this year reached 27.9%).
The initiative also forecasts for next year a national public sector primary budget surplus equivalent to 1.5% of GDP, with a 20.6% increase in public spending, below inflation.
Since his inauguration in December 2023, Milei has governed without an approved budget, allocating and withdrawing resources by decree or simple resolutions. This time, it changed strategy at the express request of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the United States government, in return for the economic bailouts they granted to Argentina last April and September respectively.
During a debate that lasted nearly ten hours, the ultra senators’ speeches focused on praising Milei’s economic plan and the “budget surplus.” “This budget expresses the economic path chosen by Argentine society. It is a budget that does not improvise, that does not deceive, that does not promise what cannot be achieved,” said Senator Patricia Bullrich, Milei’s main representative in the upper house. “Zero deficit cannot be negotiated, it is the red line that separates the future from disaster,” he stressed, closing the debate.
Most of the criticisms were made by the Peronist bench, which denounced, among other things, the reduction of public funds, social policies and pensions, the definancing of provincial states and the scientific system, deindustrialization and debt. “This budget systematically violates the national Constitution,” declared Senator Jorge Capitanich, explaining that the project presents “structural inconsistencies” and “inadmissible fiscal objectives”.
The budget article that has raised the most questions is the one that eliminates a series of minimum financing objectives for education (6% of GDP), science (1%), technical schools and national defense equipment, provided by law as a future horizon. Peronist lawmakers and other centrist forces, including regular government allies, converged to reject the point.
“This article clearly violates the constitutional principle of progressiveness, it is a total regression of the right to education,” declared Kirchnerist senator Anabel Fernández Sagasti. “And this has nothing to do with the budget deficit, because no budget item is planned, but rather a declaration of principles against public education,” he insisted. Regardless, the will of the Executive ultimately prevailed: during the vote in question, the chapter in question was approved with 42 votes for and 28 against.
Although the government obtained approval, Milei’s budget lost a substantial portion along the way. The official project arrived mutilated in the Senate. A week ago, by granting it a half-sanction, the Chamber of Deputies rejected the repeal of two laws approved this year at the request of the opposition: the university financing laws and the laws on emergency care for disabled people. The purpose of these two rules is to reverse the funding reductions implemented by Milei in these areas. The president already vetoed them, but Congress ratified them. The Executive tried again to cancel them through the budget, but again failed. In the Senate, he did not even attempt to enter the fray, so as not to risk approval of the entire budget. In the meantime, the two laws remain in force, but the Executive has so far refused to apply them.
About The Author
