After Javier Milei confirmed that he will not veto the 2026 budget if the Senate manages to approve it next Friday, The Justicialist bloc, chaired by José Mayans, began meeting to obtain votes to reject another contradictory and controversial article: number 30.which, starting next year, would eliminate all funding for national education, science and technology, technical and vocational training, and the National Defense Fund (Fondef), all sensitive issues for teachers, students and the military.
As far as he could tell iProfessional, Peronist senators and some representatives met this morning and afternoon to… Do a recount or “Poroteo” of our own and allied banks to reject this milei cut. Senator Jorge Capitanich and Representative Julia Strada brought together a group of students from technical schools.
Budget 2026: Peronism seeks to avoid cuts in science and education
“It is very complicated, at the moment we are looking at the numbersto see if we can gather the votes to reject these spending cuts on education and the military and to reverse this article,” one of the senators assured this medium.
Should the rejection be achieved, the budget would undergo another change in addition to the one it had suffered in the Chamber of Deputies (repeals of the disability and university funding laws were abolished). should return to the House of Commons, which is the initiation chamber. In this case, MPs should choose only between two alternatives: insist entirely on the original project or accept the Senate’s amendments.
“It’s very difficult at the moment” said a Peronist representative accompanying the negotiations. In the lower house, Milei suffered a painful defeat when the budget was passed last week because the opposition blocs rejected the entire Chapter 11 The repeal of the Disability Emergency Act and the University Emergency Act was considered. These two laws resulted in a fiscal cost of 0.8% of GDP, about $4.2 billion.
In addition, an allocation was made to the city, the mobility of general child and family allowances was abolished, the cold zone subsidy for gas was abolished, the non-contributory pension system was abolished, debts of 3.5 billion dollars were recognized to Edenor, Edesur, Pampa, Central Puerto and others and resources were allocated to the judiciary.
When Chapter 11 fell, Milei threatened to veto the budget and part of the government wanted to insist on this chapter in the Senate, including Milei, his sister Karina Milei, the chief of staff Manuel Adorni and the propaganda advisor Santiago Caputo. Meanwhile, last Friday, another moderate wing called for accepting this change to save the budget. Among the latter, the leading voices were Senator Patricia Bullrich and Economy Minister Luis “Toto” Caputo, who were keen not to trigger turbulence in the markets to pay off the $4.2 billion in debt due on January 9th.
Javier Milei prioritizes surplus
Now Milei assures that he will rearrange the items to preserve the budget surplus. on the advice of Luis Caputo, but there were versions that he could repeal these laws through DNU, which would be a political and institutional scandal.
After this conflict, the Senate faces this further obstacle, although in this case the Justicialist senators recognize that it will be very difficult to find numbers that repeal Article 30 of the budget. The text of this article provides for the following exceptions:
- Article 9 of Law 26.206 of National education and its changes;
- Articles 5, 6 and 7 of Law 27.614 dated Funding the National System for Science, Technology and Innovation;
- Article 52 of Law 26.058 of Professional technical training;
- Section 1 of Article 4 of Law 27.565 of the National Defense Fund.
The Peronist bloc considers these exceptions an attack on the conquests of the last Peronist governments of Néstor and Cristina Kirchner.
Article 9 of Law 26.206 establishes that the consolidated budget of the national state, the provinces and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, dedicated exclusively to education, shall not be less than 6% of the GDP.
Articles 5, 6 and 7 of Law 27,614 regulate the financing of science and technology and stipulate that the Secretariat for Scientific and Technological Articulation will coordinate the relevant budget items with the Chief of Staff. Article 52 of Law 26,058 created the National Fund for Professional Technical Training, which must be financed with an amount of at least 0.2% of the current income provided for in the budget.
Meanwhile, Article 4 of Law 27,565 established the National Defense Fund, which includes 0.35% of the budgeted current income for the year 2020, 0.5% for 2021, 0.65% for 2022 and 0.8% for 2023, and has been maintained in subsequent years until today. This fund is independent of the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces appropriations in the state budget.
The PJ is looking for allies to reject Article 30
Meanwhile, the Peronist senators received secondary students from technical and agrotechnical schools in the province of Buenos Aires and the CABA and demanded the continuity of the National Fund for Professional Technical Training (FONETP), which is being cut.
Lawmakers and students opposed Article 30 of the 2026 budget, which repeals Article 52 of the Law on Technical and Vocational Education, claiming it was promoted by former President Néstor Kirchner in 2005.
The meeting was organized by Senators Jorge Capitanich, Carlos Linares and Mariano Recalde, national representative Julia Strada and former director of the National Institute for Technological Education (INET) Gerardo Marchesini.
The student delegation consisted of about forty representatives of technical and agrotechnical secondary schools from the districts of La Matanza, Merlo, San Martin, Berazategui and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires in Buenos Aires, grouped in the Association of Students of Technical Colleges of the Province of Buenos Aires and the Provincial Association of Students in Movement.
“The meeting highlighted the importance of technical education as a trainer of skilled workers for an industrialized country model and noted the decline in student enrollment as a result of the complex economic situation and the reduction in funding for this educational sector, as well as the absence of a productivist and industrial government project,” said a subsequent statement.
Capitanich emphasized that “the Technical Education Law 26,058 has already had twenty years of application, of which in ten years the corresponding goals were achieved almost to the letter with $1.9 billion.” And he specified that it was interrupted during the years of the pandemic and the government of Mauricio Macri. “These funds were used to build and renovate schools across the country, purchase equipment and invest in a variety of technology for the qualified training of young people.” “to, among other things, facilitate their integration into the labor market,” said Capitanich.
In this sense, the bloc published a study by the Center for Argentine Political Economy (CEPA) which indicates that the financing of the National Fund for Technical and Vocational Education (FoNETP) will suffer a cut of 93% in 2026 compared to what was carried out in 2023, 62% compared to what was carried out in 2024 and 67% compared to what was carried out in 2025 will. Significantly, there were no complaints from the university sector or military sectors affected by the cut in Fondef, a fund that finances military equipment.
In the hypothetical case that Peronism gets the votes rejecting Article 30, the 2026 budget bill should be returned to the Chamber of Deputies in the few remaining days of the year, but the government considers this a remote possibility, although Senator Patricia Bullrich, who sets the strategy in the Senate, does not stop taking precautions.
About The Author
