He Budget 2026 once again became a minefield for Javier Milei’s government. After the setback that Peronism suffered among deputies with the fall of Chapter 11, it has now launched a new offensive in the Senate to try to overturn two key articles of libertarian adjustment: Article 30, which cuts funding for education, science, technology and defense in one fell swoop, and Article 61, which liquidates national contributions to provincial pension funds.
The adaptation for education, science, engineering, technology, vocational training and defense amounts to $51,860 million. These are resources that appear as “objectives” in successive education laws, although not all of these items are being implemented today.
The reduction in pensions is significant: of the 2,875 million dollars that the untransferred provincial pension funds demand from Anses, Milei only commits to transfer 86.2 million, which in pesos is equivalent to 123,000 million, as stated in the text of the law. Budget.
The Senator from Cordoba Alejandra VigoFor example, he said on Channel X that the nation should transfer 690 billion pesos to his province alone. If any of the articles are rejected, the project should be sent back to the Chamber of Deputies to insist on its original version or accept the reforms.
Look for votes to stop important articles
Meanwhile, in parliamentary jargon it says: the PJ “porotes” and he talks to potential wayward senators from all sides. In political translation: He is looking for nine borrowed votes to reverse a vote that seems to be going uphill for now.
The ruling party La Libertad Avanza counts at least 44 votes for the vote budget In general, however, it is not yet possible to predict how the respective article will turn out in detail and whether it will possibly be rejected.
In this case the project should return Chamber of Deputies to accept the Senate’s sanction in full or to insist on the original sanction. The magic number: nine senators
The role of the Peronist bloc in the negotiations
The Legalist bloc has 28 own voices. To reject Articles 30 and 61, or any of these articles, you need 37. The immediate goal is to add nine awkward allies between provincials and radicals with a territorial endpoint. According to high Peronist sources in the Senate, there are moderate expectations of achieving:
- The vote of Córdoba by Alejandra Vigo.
- Two from Chubut, Andrea Cristina and Edith Terenzi
- Two from Corrientes or at least one, Carlos Mauricio “Camau” Espínola
Provinces affected by pension changes
That would allow us to add six. The rest could come from the UCR, where the names Flavio Fama and Maximiliano Abad appear alongside some other radical senators with federalist considerations. “It is very difficult at the moment,” a Peronist senator admitted bluntly iProfessionalas I look through the Excel spreadsheet that now replaces the traditional policy.
But the cuts are having an impact State education fund and pension fund Not broadcast from many provinces among which there could be votes to stop this unbridled chainsaw: These are the provinces of Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Corrientes, Chaco, Chubut, Entre Ríos, Formosa, La Pampa, Misiones, Neuquén, Santa Fe, Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego. Article 30: The long chainsaw without anesthesia
Impact of Article 30 on Education, Science and Defense
For Peronism, Article 30 is the ideological heart of PMilei quote. Four pillars of state financing that also outlasted previous governments are being abolished:
- National education: the target of 6% of GDP, corresponds $43,560 million. To date, they have not been fully implemented, but are anchored in law as a goal. Now not even that.
- Science and Technology: The progressive investments of 1% of GDP, about $7,260 million, are canceled. It is also a budgetary target. But the repeal makes it a dead letter.
- Technical Education: The National Fund for Technical Schools is abolished, 0.2% of current income, about $240 million. They are the centers where thousands of young people are trained in professions that are now suffering from a labor productivity crisis.
- Defense: The Fondef, equivalent to 0.8% of current income, about $800 million, is canceled while the military recovers salaries and social work, the IOSFA faces technical bankruptcy.
Education and pension funding entitlements
The amount of the adjustment is $51,860 million. In government they prefer to call it “ordering.” In it senate They translate it as “scorched earth.” Article 61: Provincial pensions, low-cost version.
The other front is Article 61which plans to transfer 122,000 million pesos (about $86.2 million) to the province’s 13 unvested pension funds. The problem is that the provinces are calculating a combined deficit of $2,875 million by 2026. That means the nation would only cover a symbolic fraction of the deficit.
Discussion about the financing of pension funds
The affected boxes belong to: Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Corrientes, Chaco, Chubut, Entre Ríos, Formosa, La Pampa, Misiones, Neuquén, Santa Fe, Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego. In the corridors of the Senate they have already christened the system with the name “pension payday”: little, late and with luck. Meetings, students and warnings.
Against this background, the Justicialist bloc chaired by Jose Mayans intensified the meetings. This Monday, senators and deputies received students from technical schools in Buenos Aires and CABA, convened by Jorge Capitanich, Carlos Linares, Mariano Recalde and the deputy Julia Strada.
The message was clear: without a technical education fund, no workforce training or productive model is possible. An argument that sounds downright subversive in the age of chainsaws. Capitanich recalled that the technical education law, sponsored by Nestor Kirchner In 2005, we were able to invest $1.9 billion in infrastructure, equipment and technology over two decades.
According to a CEPA report, the FoNETP will suffer in 2026 a decrease of 93% compared to 2023. Paradoxically, there were no visible protests against the Fondef cuts from either the university world or the military. Silence that also makes noise. Milei, the veto and the spirit of the DNU
Possible scenarios after the vote in the Senate
In the meantime, Milei confirmed that he would not veto the budget if the Senate approves on Friday. But no one in Casa Rosada is ruling out a more abrupt, if for now unlikely, exit: the DNU’s repeal of laws that Congress refuses to touch. An option that sounds like an institutional scandal even to casual allies. The moderate wing of the government on the issue, led by Luis “Toto” Caputo and with the tactical support of Patricia Bullrich, is trying to avoid shocks before the $4.2 billion debt maturity on January 9th.
The markets, it seems, are voting every day and remain calm for now. Open End If Peronism succeeds in rejecting Articles 30 and 61, the Budget 2026 must be returned to MPs, who must decide whether to insist on the original text or accept the Senate’s amendments.
You can’t partially accept the reforms, it’s all or nothing. The government considers this a remote possibility. But they have already said the same thing Chapter 11which was eliminated in the Chamber of Deputies and was on the verge of killing the entire project with Milei’s threat of a veto, was later reversed. In a fragmented Congress, adapting also requires allies.
And this time, the chainsaw could get stuck in the housing. But for now, the Casa Rosada is trying to take all necessary measures to bring together governors and senators from home and abroad.
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