President Javier Miley signed on Friday the first official step to open a new legislative round during the summer: the decree calling for extraordinary sessions, confirmed by Chief of Staff Manuel Adorni, will be published next Tuesday in the Official Gazette. With this step, the ruling party launches an agenda full of projects that it considers structural to consolidate its political and economic program, and which it will seek to promote in a Congress in which tension, negotiations, and the new political apparatus will be its first acid test.
The call will include: Budget 2026, Fiscal Innocence, Penal Code Reform, Glacier Law Amendment, Labor Reform, and Tax Reform. Each of these pieces will advance with its own dynamics, but they all share one thing in common: they require political scale, which the ruling party must build despite internal tensions.
In the case of the 2026 budget, Casa Rosada takes it for granted that it will be approved. The dialogue blocs have already given sufficient signals of support, and according to Martin Menem’s comments, the technical negotiations have reached their final stage. Above all because of the support of the Conservatives who needed money for public works.
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The government will have to show its fiscal targets and economic roadmap, or even if amendments or amendments appear in the Senate later. The government’s political message, as expressed by Milley himself, is that the administration is no longer in a transitional mode, but rather in the full exercise of power. Moreover, this would be a clear signal to economic actors, the political system and its voters.
The situation surrounding penal code reform is different, as the executive authority decided to choose an unusual formula: sending the project divided into chapters. This move seeks to avoid rejection en masse and allow each section to find its own situational majority. The person who will play hard in preserving the initiative and who intends to continue adding political volume with it is Patricia Bullrich, who presented the project at Casa Rosada this week.
Today’s unknown is how many chapters the package will contain. Some in Congress talk about five, others about seven or eight. In Balcarce 50 they prefer to maintain secrecy and say the final structure will be “flexible” and will adapt to the pace of political negotiations, a sign that the government does not want to repeat the initial setbacks.
Another strong bet would be the so-called financial acquittal, known as “getting the dollars out of bed,” which José Luis Espert introduced months ago. The text aims to amend inspection practices considered abusive and redefine the standards of tax liability.
In the opposition they expect resistance and warn that this measure could stop state funding, but in the government they stress that it does not affect structural revenues and that the goal is to put an end to “financial harassment.” It will undoubtedly be an artistic discussion with a strong political flavour. It will begin to be discussed in parliament because it is a tax regulation.
On the other hand, labor market reform is reaching extraordinary levels in a much more sensitive climate. The Casa Rosada party insists it is a question of updating outdated rules, but in the UfP they are already preparing for a strong opposition and some federal blocs are assessing the electoral costs of accompanying such profound changes in the middle of summer. For its part, the CGT has calibrated its strategy: it does not rule out escalating pressure if the government decides to go ahead with the text without major concessions.
It is striking the secrecy with which the ruling party is managed, and at the same time the circulation of a series of drafts that appear to be “measuring the thermometer” of the debate, rather than actually being the text that will be discussed in the committees. Those close to Bullrich believe that the debate will begin in the Senate.
At the same time, the executive will include an amendment to the Glacier Law, a latent claim by several Patagonian governors seeking to free mining projects affected by current legislation. Casa Rosada is working on a formulation that allows for progress without incurring the political cost of appearing as a promoter of environmental decline. From the beginning of his administration, Miley has insisted that mining will be one of the engines of the Argentine economy.
The list is completed by tax reform, which is the most technical project and perhaps the one with the greatest political intensity. This is perhaps the least known project. It is expected that the matter will be discussed during the months of next year, after the second half of January, when everything points to the resumption of extraordinary sessions. It is possible to change the agenda at the last minute; The first part of the call will be from December 10th to the 31st of this month. After that, it will resume from the second two weeks, but that season remains to be seen.
Villarroel disavows Miley and pays year-end bonus
As she awaits the start of the regular session period that begins on December 10, Victoria Villarroel continues to generate signals that will continue to trouble the government, especially President Javier Miley. Before the end of this week, he signed off on paying an extraordinary bonus of 500,000 pesos to legislative staff. The decision, which was officially taken by internal decision, came as great news for workers in the Senate, but it exposes his neighbor, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Martin Menem, especially in light of the lack of raises and bonuses at the end of the year. The payment will only be made once during the month of December and will be non-remunerative, meaning it will not affect the base salary or generate new additional salaries. This measure covers all permanent and temporary employees and those who work under special regulations within the Senate. As Villarroel stated in the signed text, the benefit includes only those who have provided effective services for at least six months in 2025, a requirement that seeks to limit the universe of beneficiaries and order administrative liquidation. In the corridors of the Senate, the resolution was interpreted as a political message to the Pink House. Although their entourage avoided confronting Casa Rosada, the vice president’s decision contradicts the reissue of the saw that the government is preparing for next year.