MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Milei caught red-handed “increasing” his own salary by 48%

Congresswoman Victoria Tolosa Paz broke out the new chapter in the political caste saga

Just a few days after ordering Lower House Speaker Martín Menem to reverse his decision together with Vice President Victoria Villarruel to increase the wages of lawmakers by around 30%, Argentine President Javier Milei was forced to announce that he would do the same regarding a pay hike of around 48% he had decreed for himself and the members of his cabinet, it was reported in Buenos Aires during the weekend.

Read also: Milei sacks official responsible for outrageous pay hike

Milei argued that his decree targeted only Casa Rosada staffers but was not aimed at himself or the other high-ranking non-career civil servants but it ended up having these effects since a decree by then-President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (CFK) from the early 2010s provided that politically-appointed hierarchs should not earn less than the people under them.

The scandal broke out when opposition Congresswoman Victoria Tolosa Paz of Unión por la Patria, who served as Minister of Social Development under Alberto Fernández detected the glitch and went public with it as the Libertarian Government pushes for further budgetary cuts and has already put millions of Argentines in dire straits to make ends meet since coming to power three months ago.

Read also: Milei threatens to pee on all of Argentina's governors and shut down Congress

”With the banner of austerity, Milei lies to us. The President lies to all Argentines. The President signed a decree on February 29 where (an) increase was applied to all the hierarchical positions of the national Executive Branch, but then he makes a public staging that the unfair increase is that of deputies and senators,” Tolosa Paz argued.

CON LA BANDERA DE LA AUSTERIDAD MILEI NOS MIENTE

El Presidente nos miente a todos los Argentinos y Argentinas,

El Presidente firmó un decreto el 29 de Febrero donde se aplicó aumento a todos los cargos jerárquicos del poder ejecutivo nacional pero luego hace una escenificación… pic.twitter.com/grNKZVDstD

— Victoria Tolosa Paz (@vtolosapaz) March 9, 2024

Milei said he would backtrack on his own decision and also repeal CFK's measure. Nevertheless, this faux pas bearing his signature further enraged the beleaguered population who reasonably claimed that the head of state should have known the scope of what he was signing (Decree 206/2024, alongside Cabinet Chief Nicolás Posse, and Human Capital Minister Sandra Petovello).

The opposition also underlined that although the 48% adjustment was in line with the country's inflation, almost nobody working in the private sector had received such an increase.

“Do you know how much the salary of the President, the Ministers, the Secretaries, and the Undersecretaries of State increased? IT INCREASED BY 48 % BETWEEN JANUARY AND FEBRUARY,” Tolosa Paz posted on social media.

“For this reason, we are submitting a Bill with UxP deputies to repeal the increase granted by the authorities of the National Congress for the national legislators, but we are also asking for the repeal of the increase decreed by Milei last February 29,” which directly impacted his own salary and that of those holding high offices, she went on.

Interior Minister Guillermo Francos admitted that Milei's decree was “a mistake” but criticized CFK's sizeable pension. “Clearly, there was a mistake because nobody took into account those decrees,” Francos explained in a radio interview.

The Libertarian Government dubbed the occurrence as an “accounting error,” which only added to that affecting lawmakers on the same rationale: that their wages should go up together with those of lowly-ranked staffers.

See also: Argentina: Libertarian gov't wants wage hike for lawmakers reversed