MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine Lower House broadly approves Milei's workhorse bill

The House will start reviewing next Tuesday each of the more than 300 provisions featured in the draft

Argentina's Lower House Friday broadly approved by 144 votes to 109 President Javier Milei's so-called Omnibus Law bill to curb State spending and achieve zero deficit, it was reported in Buenos Aires. Next week, each provision of the draft will be analyzed separately, it was also explained.

Milei's La Libertad Avanza acquiesced to many rewordings and suppressions before the “Law of Bases and Starting Points for the Freedom of Argentines” -as it is officially called- could move forward. However, the chapter granting extra powers to the Executive remained unaltered after three days of Parliamentary debate.

According to local media, the House will start reviewing next Tuesday at 2 pm local time each of the more than 300 provisions regarding economic, administrative, penal, and even environmental matters, from which the privatization of public companies stands out.

Supporting LLA Friday were the Radical Civic Union (UCR), PRO, Hacemos Coalición Federal, Innovación Federal, Creo; Avanza La Libertad, Producción y Trabajo, Buenos Libre, Independencia, and Unión Mendoza.

President Milei's inner circle was reported to have celebrated Friday's outcome and hoped “to have the same greatness on the day of the vote in particular” to “move forward in the Senate and begin to give back dignity to the Argentine people.”

“The Office of the President celebrates the positive vote of the deputies who approved in general the Law of 'Bases and Starting Points for the Freedom of Argentines' and is especially grateful for the collaboration of the deputies and heads of their respective blocks, Cristian Ritondo, Miguel Ángel Pichetto and Rodrigo de Loredo, who, despite our differences, have contributed for the law to move forward,” a statement read.

“History will remember with honor all those who understood the historical context and chose to end the privileges of the caste and the corporate republic, in favor of the people, who have been impoverished and starved for years by the political class,” the document went on.

In a previous release, “the National Government has listened to the positions of the different political forces and demands responsibility and speed in the voting of the Law of Bases and Starting Points for the Freedom of the Argentines” while “suggestions were taken, modifications were made, the fiscal chapter was eliminated and we have reached a consensus project.”

The Libertarian administration insisted then that it was “time for the representatives of the people to decide whether they are on the side of the freedom of the Argentine people or on the side of the privileges of the caste and the corporate republic.”

Meanwhile, Milei wrote on X that “for months they accused us of being anti-democratic because we exposed a political caste that only looks after its own interests” but “today they have the opportunity to show which side of history they want to be on.”

Clashes between law enforcement authorities and demonstrators opposing the bill were also recorded Friday outside Argentina's Congress.