The Argentine government has summoned Parliament into an extraordinary session to examine a package of measures aimed at reforming the state and a controversial decree on massive deregulation of the economy, according to the text signed Friday evening by ultraliberal President Javier Milei. The extraordinary session is to be held from December 26 to January 31, within Parliament, where Javier Milei’s far-right party is largely in the minority.
It will come after the first demonstrations which took place at the call of unions and left-wing organizations to denounce the government’s austerity program and the measures targeted by the decree. The union confederations also called for demonstrations next Wednesday in front of the courts to submit to the courts a request to challenge the decree on the grounds that it is unconstitutional.
300 standards to modify or repeal
This “emergency decree”, signed by Javier Milei ten days after taking office and published a few days ago in the Official Journal, is intended to modify or repeal more than 300 standards, including those on rents, privatizations and the right of work. In particular, it provides for the repeal of the law governing rents or the law which attempted to curb speculation in large-scale distribution, while the prices of essential items continue to increase.
It also repeals the regulations protecting workers with a trial period increasing from three to eight months, the modification in favor of companies of compensation schemes for dismissal without cause or the renegotiation of collective agreements in force since 1975. Parliament has ten days after publication in the Official Journal to approve or reject the decree in its entirety, without being able to open discussion on the details of its content, according to the regulations relating to the processing of emergency decrees.
Milei’s party minority in both houses
The decree is approved by a simple majority and will come into force on December 29 if it is not reviewed within the deadline. On the other hand, to invalidate it, both chambers must reject it. Javier Milei’s far-right party, La Libertad Avanza, is in the minority in both houses, with only 40 seats out of 257 in the Lower House and only seven seats in the Senate out of 72. Javier Milei, a 53-year-old economist, was elected president in November on a program of “cutting” the State and clearing the “political caste”.