A month after the barbecue with “the 87 heroes” who voted against a miserable increase for retirees, Javier Milei called four Peronist governors who helped him validate the veto of the pension law to a dinner at the Quinta de Olivos. University Financing. With a barbecue in between and with the aim of strengthening his alliances in Congress, the president received Osvaldo Jaldo (Tucumán), Gustavo Sáenz (Salta), Raúl Jalil (Catamarca) and Hugo Passalacqua (Misiones), whose actions are repudiated in the current wave of protests at universities across the country.
With La Libertad Avanza as a minority in Congress, the Government was forging alliances with parliamentarians from other blocks so that its initiatives, from the Base Law onwards, prosper. The meeting at the presidential residence, organized by the Chief of Staff, Guillermo Francos, had the purpose of entertaining four leaders who were key to shielding the presidential veto. Along with the President and Francos, on the Government side were the Secretary General of the Presidency, Karina Milei, who returned this Sunday from her tour of France, and the off-road operator Santiago Caputo.
In the case of Jaldo, it has already become customary for the Government to count on the votes of the three deputies of the “Independence” bloc (Gladys Medina, Agustín Fernández, Elia Fernández). In the case of Sáenz, the absence of deputy Yolanda Vega, from the Federal Innovation bloc, contributed. Jalil did the same with deputy Fernanda Ávila, from the Unión por la Patria bloc, who was in the venue and left. For his part, Passalacqua contributed to the abstention of Alberto Arrúa, Carlos Fernández, Yamila Ruíz and Daniel Vancsik, also members of the Federal Innovation bloc.
The complicit role of the Peronist deputies and governors is pointed out by the university students who mobilize in their provinces, which led the governors to maintain a low profile regarding the meeting. The general rejection of the roasting of the “heroes”, as Milei called them, who upheld the veto against retirees is taken as a precedent for this caution. For this reason, Sáenz declared that “there was nothing to celebrate” and Jaldo extended a public definition of his attendance until Sunday.
Anticipating the rejection, the governor of Salta affirmed that “he is in favor of public education” while his Tucumán counterpart declared last week that he shared the need “for a budget increase”, after ordering the evacuation of a public class. Statements that come after sending his deputies to vote precisely against an increase in the university budget.
Adjustment negotiations
In addition to strengthening the link, the Government’s intention is to ensure the support of the northern governors for the two major initiatives proposed in the short term, the 2025 Budget and the Hojarasca Law designed by Federico Sturzenegger.
“I come willing to listen and have a time of camaraderie,” said Jalil before entering the Quinta de Olivos, while Jaldo, when asked who would pay for the barbecue: “I come without a card and without money, but with many orders.”
The governors’ intention was to negotiate to improve their portion of the adjustment, responding to criticism that the relationship with the Nation is not reciprocal. “We have been accompanying and providing governance from the beginning. What has to do with our provinces and can benefit our provinces, we will accompany,” said a smiling Sáenz. Asked if they will support the 2025 budget, the man from Salta said: “Of course yes, if all the works that correspond to each of the provinces are incorporated, which is what the national government promised to continue.”
The Government also seeks to retain the votes they have been obtaining when their vetoes are discussed in Congress, since a sector of the opposition advances with the idea of reforming Law 26,122 on the presidential DNU. Milei already announced that he would veto any modification, so he would once again need more than a third of the deputies to support it.
Politically, the meeting with the governors meant a move to not show the Government so dependent on the negotiations with Mauricio Macri and the PRO. The negotiations over the veto of the university budget left the political costs to the Government while Macri made progress in occupying places with officials who answer to him. In turn, the meeting with four governors who contributed names to Ricardo Quintela’s list within the PJ, further tightens the rope after Milei’s far-right statements against Cristina.
Milei’s dinner with the Peronist governors who support his vetoes is an affront to the thousands of students, teachers and non-teachers who are mobilizing demanding a larger budget for public universities and also to the retirees from whom they take their bread from the mouth. And it shows a new obscene scene of those who agree to an adjustment against the working people at the request of the IMF and big businessmen.
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
