MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Criminal complaints filed against Argentine President

The measures were taken after Fernández and 14 provincial governors announced the Supreme Court ruling favoring the City of Buenos Aires would be appealed “in extremis”

Criminal complaints have been filed against Argentine President Alberto Fernández for non-compliance with the Supreme Court ruling ordering the national government to give the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (CABA) 2.95% of the so-called “federal co-participation funds.”

The measures were taken after Fernández and 14 provincial governors announced the ruling would be appealed “in extremis.”

“It is clear that the announced appeal that the National Executive Branch intends to file is a maneuver intended to question the legal criterion of the Court and not to correct a material error. Therefore, it is clearly inappropriate and a mere excuse to try to clumsily justify the decision of not complying with the sentence,” it was argued by CABA lawmaker Roberto García Moritán who insisted together with lawyer Yamil Santoro that the recusal of all the judges on the Court was inadmissible because it was untimely.

Lawmakers of the Civic Coalition and party leader Elisa Carrió filed a separate case against Fernández and other officials involved in the non-compliance decision: Eduardo De Pedro (Interior); Juan Manzur (Cabinet Chief); Sergio Massa (Economy), and Jorge Capitanich (Governor of Chaco). ”The actions deployed by Capitanich imply instigating in a public manner the uprising or disobedience of a resolution (sentence) issued by national public officials (Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation),“ the complaint read.

The national government announced it would not abide by the Supreme Court's ruling because ”it is impossible to comply with“ and ”has a unitary view“ of Argentina.

”The President of the Nation has decided to instruct the competent bodies of the National State to recuse the members of the Supreme Court and to file a request for the revocation in extremis of the precautionary resolution issued,“ Fernández and the 14 governors who ”will instruct the competent authorities of their jurisdictions so that the provincial states request to be considered as a party in the proceedings accompanying the recusal of the ministers who signed the precautionary measure and to request its repeal in extremis.”

The document is signed by Governors Axel Kicillof (Buenos Aires), Gildo Insfrán (Formosa), Raúl Jalil (Catamarca), Osvaldo Jaldo (Tucumán), Gustavo Bordet (Entre Ríos), Ricardo Quintela (La Rioja), Sergio Uñac (San Juan), Gerardo Zamora (Santiago del Estero), Mariano Arcioni (Chubut), Alberto Rodríguez Saá (San Luis), Sergio Ziliotto (La Pampa), Jorge Capitanich (Chaco), Gustavo Melella (Tierra del Fuego) and Alicia Kirchner (Santa Cruz).

“The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, without substantiating the way by which it builds such amount, decides to increase that percentage to 2.95; that is to say, it grants the City of Buenos Aires more than 180 billion pesos in addition to those it already receives”, stated the communiqué.

“In a political ruling, in the face of an election year, the Supreme Court intends to subtract resources from all the provinces to give them to the head of government of the CABA. This measure is, in the current conditions, impossible to comply with, since the National Congress approved by law the 2023 budget without contemplating budgetary credit for such purpose,” the signatories stressed.

“After meeting with the President of the Nation, Alberto Fernández, the Governors agreed that the ruling of the Supreme Court has a unitary, clearly centralist view of the country, which is impossible for the national government to comply with,” Tierra del Fuego Governor Gustavo Melella explained on social media.

He added that the Supreme Court's ruling was ”a blow to federalism to politically benefit the City of Buenos Aires, especially its Head of Government (Horacio Rodríguez Larreta) to the detriment of all the Argentine provinces.“

”It is clear that suspending the application of a law of Congress and ordering the Nation to grant the equivalent of 2.95% of co-participable funds, has been a decision to benefit Larreta and harm the provinces and the Nation,” he added.

Deputy Ricardo López Murphy said he would moot to have President Fernández impeached for his refusal to obey a Supreme Court ruling.