The Congress of Argentina passed President Javier Milei’s omnibus bill on Thursday evening, paving the way for sweeping reforms to the Argentine state.
Thursday’s Congressional session, which lasted more than 12 hours, saw the members of Argentina’s Chamber of Deputies cast the final vote required on the bill’s final details after the Argentine Senate voted to approve the bill on June 12. The bill had the support of 147 deputies against 107 who voted to reject it. Two lawmakers abstained from voting.
The bill, titled the “Law of Bases and Starting Points for the Freedom of Argentines,” was first presented by Milei roughly two weeks after he took office on December 10 and contains reforms and deregulation measures across a wide variety of sectors. The bill also codifies the contents of the Necessity and Urgency Decree (DNU) executive order signed by Milei in December, which undid more than 350 socialist policies.
The bill’s title is a reference to a book written by Argentine politician and diplomat Juan Bautista Alberdi in 1852 that saw many of its contents eventually incorporated into Argentina’s original 1853 constitution.
While the original iteration of the bill contained more than 660 articles, the final approved version was trimmed down to 234. Most of its fiscal-related contents were separated into an ancillary bill on “Palliative and Relevant Fiscal Measures,” which was also passed on Thursday.
The final approval of the omnibus bill follows six months of Congressional debates where Milei’s Liberty Advances party only holds seven seats in the Senate and 38 in the lower chamber, leading to negotiations with other political blocs that resulted in modifications to the original text.
The law’s final text declares a one-year “emergency in administrative, economic, financial and energy matters,” thereby delegating certain legislative functions to the executive in those areas for that time. The law also privatizes some public companies and establishes a multitude of economic, labor, and investment reforms meant to undo decades’ worth of socialist state regulations.
The Argentine president’s office celebrated the approval of the law in a statement on Friday in which the Argentine executive announced the approval of the law “in spite of the obstructionism of Kirchnerism [socialists who ruled for much of the past two decades] and its usual accomplices, who delayed the bill for months.”
The statement described the law as “the first law on the road towards the free and prosperous country that the Argentines chose last November 19.”
— Oficina del Presidente (@OPRArgentina) June 28, 2024
“The Executive Branch is once again grateful for the patriotic work of the legislators who understood the historic responsibility they had in their hands and contributed with their affirmative vote,” the statement read, “in spite of the constant and desperate attempts of those who seek to cling to their privileges at the expense of the development of the country.”
Milei told the Argentine news channel La Nación on Friday that the approval of the law was a “monumental milestone” in the nation’s history.
“We are definitely starting a new country,” he declared, calling the bill the “first phase” in his reforms.
“So far, we did phase one of the government. On one hand, we have passed the largest structural reform in history,” Milei explained. “Last night’s Bases Law is a historical and monumental milestone; it is five times bigger than the reform made by [former President Carlos] Menem, which until now was the biggest in Argentine history.”
“If we add to that the DNU that is in force, that means that Argentina has just implemented 800 structural reforms; in terms of economic freedom, Argentina will climb 90 positions and begin to resemble countries like Germany, France, [and] Italy,” he continued.
Milei explained that the new phase of his government will see a change in Argentina’s monetary regime.
“Fiscal consolidation is underway; the zero deficit stage is over. Now we are going to the zero emission stage,” Milei said. “The monetary regime change is coming. What we are aiming for is that the broad monetary base does not vary anymore.”
The Argentine president vowed the reforms would not end with the recently approved law, previewing more “structural reforms,” including a “Hojarascas Law” to modify a “set of regulations that hinder the functioning of the economic system.”
Milei also announced that Federico Sturzenegger, who served as president of the Argentine Central Bank between 2015-2018, would be appointed to be in charge of executing reforms so that Argentina “gains economic freedom and we can continue growing.”
Over the past six months, Milei’s economic policies have led to a dramatic reduction in Argentina’s inflation rates, going from 25.5 percent in December to 4.2 percent in May. Milei confirmed that private studies showed that Argentina experienced a zero-percent increase in the inflation rates of food and drinks during the third week of June — marking the first time in 30 years that Argentina did not experience inflation in food and drinks.
The Argentine constitution states that, once approved by Congress, a law may be signed by the president as a decree or activated through “de facto enactment” if the president does not reject the law in ten business days. Milei is reportedly intending to speed up procedures so that the law becomes effective as soon as next week.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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