After last week’s failed attempt, the ruling party will seek on Wednesday to impose the bill enabling Axel Kicilloff to assume $3,685 million in debt in a double legislative session in deputies and senators, which was reached in the midst of tense negotiations and – although Peronism is somewhat optimistic – without a closed agreement with opposition sectors that would allow certainty about the final outcome.
Approval of the project was elusive for Kiselov because, unlike the budget and the 2026 Finance Law, debt required a two-thirds vote, and the numbers were not there. Now the government is submitting agreements to reach the required number and approve the financing law in Wednesday’s session.
The negotiations, which continued throughout the day, ended by focusing on the steps to be taken by the two blocs, the PRO and the radical sectors of the island of Somos Buenos Aires and the USSR + Federal Cambio: It would be key to know whether or not the opposition would collect the 30 votes that would allow it to block the two-thirds that Peronism and its allies needed for the bill to become law in both chambers, just before the parliamentary change took place.
On the other hand, in addition to the legislators of the Union por la Patria -kicillofistas, masistas and campistas-, the UCR sector, which has close ties to the Forum of Mayors in that space, was close to supporting, as was the case with Nuevos Aires, which actually supported last Friday. There was also confidence in joining the Union y Libertad, which entered as libertarians but had ties to the masses.
The financing bill, which was favorably approved by the House Budget and Taxation Committee, authorizes the provincial executive to assume a total debt of $3,685, distributed as follows: $1,045 million for debt amortization; US$1,990 allocated for public sector expenditures; US$250 million so that the regional public treasury can issue treasury bills in pesos or other currencies; US$200 million to the state-owned Buenos Aires Energy Company; and US$200 million to Autopistas de Buenos Aires (AUBASA).
On Monday, Kiselov warned of the problems his administration would face if it were not for the debts. “If we didn’t have that, I don’t know what it would be like. Because we’re not willing to meet debt maturities by taking resources from Health or Social Security,” he said.