Yesterday afternoon, in one of the offices on the ground floor of the Casa Rosada, it was decided not to open the surprise package left by the government’s opposition for Christmas. The 2026 budget – according to the definitions of the political table – It will be voted on in the Senate on December 26th as presented by the MPsthat is, without repealing the law providing resources to national universities or the Disability Emergency Law. Nor, at least in this case, will they seek to replace the benefits to Edenor and Edesur, the reduction of gas subsidies in the cold areas of the country and the increase in resources sent by the nation to the city of Buenos Aires.
Strictly speaking, the government assumes that the election victory was a necessary condition for maintaining stability, but this is not the case not sufficient to implement effective political decisions. Of course, the Government will, where appropriate, emphasize that the President will have his first budget in almost three years and that this is news that should be celebrated. This is not the time to go to the markets with your head down, Javier Milei must have thoughtwhich has to pay off an enormous national debt maturity in a few days, an event that should always be confronted with declining sovereign risk and not with changing financial sentiment.
The day had begun with several officials unofficially declaring that the ruling party would seek to reintroduce the already famous Chapter XI of the Budget Act, which the government had passed, in the Upper House in the opinion of the majority of MPs and that was later interrupted by the opposition at the venue. When the Senate issued the statement at midday with the same text that had been approved by the representatives, it became clear what new path the official discourse would take.
This path was ratified in the afternoon Meeting of the Political Boardthe small group of officials and lawmakers who typically discuss news and set the parameters for where the government will go. This time without Karina Milei – and with the President in front of the government building – Manuel Adorni, Chief of Staff, was present; Diego Santilli, Minister of the Interior; Martín Menem, President of the Chamber of Deputies; Patricia Bullrich, leader of La Libertad Avanza in the Senate; Santiago Caputo, presidential advisor and Eduardo “Lule” Menem, Karina Milei’s right-hand man in the General Secretariat of the Presidency. The special guest was Luis “Toto” Caputo. Everyone arrived on the scene knowing that the new plan was to celebrate the approval of the budget and to stop crying over what could not be sustained in the chambers of deputies.
Bullrich told what happened in the Senate some time ago and stated that the law would come out in the form specified by the deputieswithout traces of Chapter XI. Regarding labor reform, he repeated what he said on Thursday: it will take place in February.
The Minister of Economic Affairs said directly that he was satisfied with what was voted on in Congress and as if I were participating in the streaming of the official channel Carajowas dedicated to highlighting the good employment figures and trade surplus of recent days.
There wasn’t much room for the government to do anything else. The 2026 budget will be the one they were able to achieve and it will be without the kind of trap that the ruling party had tried to reach out to his own alliesif it was included in chapters
The first to sound the alarm were the governors of Catamarca, Raúl Jalil, and of Salta, Gustavo Sáenz, who this week informed the government that some of the lawmakers under consideration by the government as part of the preparation of the budget They would not vote to repeal two laws they themselves had voted for. What bothered them most, said one of these governors, was the deprivation of funds for the disabled, which was very difficult to explain among his constituents.
Despite this warning, the ruling party continued until early Thursday morning he woke up Because general agreement concealed the amendment of a section of the budget that the government had until that point considered central to maintaining fiscal balance. That morning, the official speech itself turned the apparent victory into the first complete political defeat since the elections. The blow was greater because Javier Milei himself and Caputo had repeatedly said that the laws for Secure funds for universities and to finance treatment for the disabled were demagogic and condemned the country to a budget deficit.
Yesterday this complaint was replaced by the new speech which will be heard from the end of the year and will be played as long as the heat lasts.
Underneath this smile, criticism of the legislative strategy imposed by the government could still be heard yesterday. “There was only haste in the executive branchS. This is evident in the labor reform and also in this last minute change that they wanted to include in the budget. Hopefully this will help them understand that politics is done little by little,” a man from the Libertarian MPs bloc told this newspaper.
It must be recognized that, at least this time, the government quickly realized – in just over 24 hours – that it was facing defeat and that this bad experience had to be turned into an opportunity for celebration, in keeping with the season marked by the Almanac.
Perhaps to accommodate this Christmas spirit, Martín Menem met yesterday with Cristian Ritondo, who had himself vented his anger in the scandal session. when he protested against the ruling party’s secret agreement with Kirchnerism and the Peronist governors As a result, the PRO had no place in the Auditor General’s Office of the Nation. The meeting took place at breakfast time and involves two MPs who have never gotten along particularly well, so it is unlikely that they toasted.
About The Author
