Omnibus legislation returns to square one: How Miley's “defeat” in Congress was created, and what comes next | the world

President of Argentina, Javier Mille, who began his official activities in Israel, visited the Wailing Wall, where he shed tears. The president thus began an international tour that, while taking him to Italy and the Vatican, ended in his country that day with a heavy blow to the omnibus law, the main program that the liberal president seeks to achieve deep reforms on several fronts. .

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The “Basics and Starting Points for Argentinians' Independence” – or omnibus law as it includes a large number of articles – was left in legislative deadlock on Tuesday after the ruling party asked the House of Representatives to end the debate. In the absence of agreement, the proposal will be re-implemented afresh.

After three days of debate in the lower house, the law was generally approved on February 2, and it was decided that the vote on the articles would begin this Tuesday, the 6th.

When the official deputy Oscar Zago asked the project to be returned to the committee, the chamber was in a full vote because, according to him, the allies in the opposition broke their commitment to join the main chapters of the Miele initiative, among them the one related to privatization. General of Companies.

“Treason pays dearly and La Libertad Avança is not going to allow the governors to extort money from the people to maintain their privileges. The Basic Law returns to the committee,” said a text released by the organization led by Maile, minutes after the move was announced, which was met with raised hands in the lower house.

Disagreements over the content of the law were evident in last week's vote. The plan initially included 664 articles, but was halved after negotiations between the ruling party and some opposition parties.

The granting of legislative powers to Miley was one of the most controversial points of the negotiations between the ruling party La Libertad Avanza and the main forces that have accompanied him since the program entered its parliamentary process: Pro, UCR and We Federal Alliance , recalls the Efe agency.

“Caste stood against the change that we Argentinians voted for in the election (…) We are going to continue our project with or without the support of the political leadership that destroyed our country,” Miley wrote on his “X” account. Israel.

A serious failure

The setback in the law is a severe blow to the Millay government, whose economic plan focuses on removing state restrictions to combat annual inflation of more than 200%.

“It's a step back. It's a defeat for Miley and it shows that the way the government has been negotiating the law until now has failed,” Argentine political analyst Santiago Rodríguez Rey tells El Comercio.

The expert emphasizes that the discussion was in a complicated situation. “At some point they counted the votes and realized that they could not approve the privatization as they had conceived, and they sent the project back to the committee, that is, it went to the first stage. The project was not rejected, but returned to the commission to continue working. Then there will be a new text,” he explains. .

“Generally the law was approved, but now the letter of the law needs to be reworked to make the scheme easier to approve,” he adds.

By returning the text to committee, a majority opinion must be regained before it can be sent to the Senate and then back to the House of Representatives.

In Israel

Milei is also looking to strengthen its role abroad. In Israel, the president announced plans to move the Argentine embassy to Jerusalem.

Currently, the Argentine embassy is located in Herzliya, near Tel Aviv, where most consular representatives are based.

Argentina's president, who has grown closer to Judaism in recent years, told the Israeli foreign minister that he wanted to show “his support for the people of Israel” through his visit and “protect the legitimate defense of the Jewish state against the terrorists” of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.

From Israel, Milei will travel to Italy on Monday to meet Pope Francis at the Vatican and meet with Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.