Javier Milei will wait until the last minute to veto the pension increase, the pension moratorium, and the disability emergency that the Senate approved on Thursday. This was confirmed to Clarin by high-ranking sources at the Casa Rosada."The veto will be issued at the limit," they stated, very close to the Milei brothers. The government is trying to buy time to gather the necessary support to shield the vetoes from the governors' rebellion. The countdown has begun, although the Executive branch has not yet been notified. LLA's political and legislative forces have approximately two weeks to go.
The same strategy of delay and negotiation had been chosen by the Government when Milei vetoed the increase in funding for universities and the pension increase in 2024.
Milei announced that she will veto the laws approved by the Senate and plans to take them to court.
Chief of Staff Guillermo Francos anticipated the President's veto and took care to rebuild the bridges that the head of state had blown up on Wednesday when he accused all the governors - without exception - of wanting to"destroy the Government."
“Not all are the same. Some governors are dedicated to spending, while others are more serious about managing public resources,” Francos clarified on Friday, when he also announced that he would seek to regain the third of the seats in the House of Representatives or the Senate that would guarantee veto protection.
In any case, all the ruling party's hopes are pinned on the Lower House. Some of the pro-dialogue governors have the most influence there. This is the case of Jujuy-born Radical Carlos Sadir, who doesn't have any senators of his own, but does have troops in the House of Representatives. The same is true for Salta-born Gustavo Sáenz, who last Monday was photographed with Karina Milei at the Casa Rosada.
Other former JxC members are in the same situation, who could lend a hand to the ruling party in the Lower House and have no room for manoeuvre in the Senate, such as Marcelo Orrego from San Juan and Claudio Poggi from San Luis. Santa Fe native Maximiliano Pullaro could also collaborate despite his statements from the United States in which he downplayed the President's invitation to Tucumán.
The exception among the former Cambiemos party members is Gustavo Valdés of Corrientes, who ordered his legislators—now including Carlos Espínola—to vote against the election after negotiations for an electoral agreement in the province failed. Jorge Macri only has one representative, who took office following the resignation of Hernán Lombardi and whose term will not be renewed due to pressure from the Libertarian Party against the mayor.
Tucumán's Osvaldo Jaldo and Catamarca's Raúl Jalil, the Peronists closest to the Rosada ("the Peronists with wigs," as some of their peers call them), showed their power to do damage for the first time and ordered their senators to vote in favor of the projects and against Milei's interests. Now it remains to be seen whether they will uphold the same order in the Lower House.
At the Rosada, they can count on a repeat of the favor already rendered by Rogelio Frigerio (Entre Ríos), Alfredo Cornejo (Mendoza), and Leandro Zdero (Chaco), who ordered their legislators to absent themselves. Even more so, with the nod of approval from Ignacio Torres (Chubut) and Hugo Passalacqua (Misiones), who ordered their legislators to abstain.
The case of Frigerio and Cornejo is unique because both are negotiating an electoral agreement with the Casa Rosada (Presidential Palace). The former is closer to achieving it. The Mendoza native is currently suffering from the avarice of the Menem cousins and Karina Milei, who are seeking to strengthen Luis Petri's team and their own leaders for the 2027 election.
In any case, even the governors closest to the Rosada demand a serious offer from the Government to counter the two bills - distribution of ATN and the co-participation of the tax on liquid fuels - that would represent close to two points of GDP and that obtained half sanction on Thursday in the Senate.
"Carlos Guberman's offer was a joke," they write about the failed counterproposal the Secretary of Finance made to the provincial finance ministers. They add that the government must acknowledge that these funds are its own resources and that they will not affect the fiscal surplus or the IMF's goals.
Kirchnerism distrusts—with arguments—several governors who favor dialogue, but it relies more heavily on the ruling party's inability to negotiate and pay its allies.
