Deputies of Argentina are preparing to give final approval to Milei’s liberal mega-reform

Two voluminous bills with which the libertarian president Javier Milei aims to attract investments are expected to receive the green light from Argentina’s Chamber of Deputies on Thursday, which is expected to approve a watered-down version of the mega-reform.

After years of a crisis that has led to inflation above 200% annually and has triggered poverty to almost 50% of the population, Milei – who has tried to “coup” the legislators who opposed the projects – seeks with the sanction of the norm a political victory that will allow him to show management capacity before the markets.

For this reason, the histrionic president agreed to give in on many articles of his mega-reform to achieve the consensus of a fragmented opposition, since the ruling party is in a large minority in both chambers of Parliament.

At the end of April, the Lower House already approved the “Bases Law” and a tax reform project, regulations that were ratified with modifications in a tight vote in the Senate two weeks ago, with the rejection of center-left Peronism.

But now the deputies must vote on the changes applied by the Senate, which they can accept or reject without their decision affecting the bulk of the articles of the laws, already approved by both chambers.

“There is no chance that the law will not come out. It will come out yes or yes, the discussion is which of the two versions,” he told Radio Argentina the deputy of the Radical Civic Union (UCR) Martín Tetaz.

The “Bases Law”, also known as “omnibus” Due to its volume, it proposes tax benefits for multimillion-dollar investments, the privatization of public companies, money laundering and special powers for the president, while the tax reform modifies the rates on high salaries and personal assets.

It is expected that the deputies will keep the state companies Aerolíneas Argentinas, Correo Argentino and the public media system exempt from the privatization process – which includes transportation, energy and service firms.

At the same time, they would approve the changes in taxes on salaries and personal property that were discarded by the Upper House.

However, center-left opposition legislators announced that they could turn to the courts to stop the application of laws that they consider border on “unconstitutionality.”

Milei had originally sent the rules to Congress shortly after taking power in December, but they were rejected. After arduous negotiations with center-right allies and the centrist opposition, which led to the reduction of the more than 600 original articles of the “Bases Law” to the current 238, the president achieved its acceptance.

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