Debate on President Javier Milei’s sweeping economic deregulation decree will begin in the Senate this Thursday, according to government sources.
According to reports, Vice-President Victoria Villarruel will later today call a special session of the upper house to discuss Decree of Necessity and Urgency (DNU) 70/2023 signed by President Milei, which would modify more than 300 laws.
The decision was taken amid debate about the decree’s validity in the Bicameral Commission of Legislative Procedure, which has been studying it. Before Congress can discuss an emergency decree, it must first clear the committee, which analyses whether it qualifies as necessary and urgent.
Villarruel has dodged for several weeks requests from the dominant Unión por la Patria (UxP) bloc, led by José Mayans, and other federal blocs, calling for the DNU to reach the Senate floor.
The opposition insists that the decree be dealt with in the Senate, arguing that the deadlines for it to be discussed in committee had already been met. Villarruel has decided to grant the opposition’s request.
The request from the federal caucuses, signed by nine senators, has tilted the field in favour of the Peronist forces, which has 33 seats, breaking the majority that the vice-president had.
As a result, Milei’s controversial decree hangs in the balance.
A parliamentary work meeting will be held later on Wednesday to outline, among other things, the debate on the mega-decree, according to sources close to Villarruel consulted by the Noticias Argentinas news agency. A formal call for the special session is expected to be issued a few hours after the meeting.
DNUs, introduced to Argentina's Constitution in 1994, must go through Congress though their changes are binding until it is formally rejected – in order for decrees to be repealed they must be voted down in both chambers of Congress.
– TIMES/NA/PERFIL
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