Of all the open fronts it has Javier Milei, of the governors, is the one that has risen the most in recent weeks. And true to his style, the President did not seek to get out of the ring: “If the Omnibus law does not pass, “They are going to be the most affected,” he had crossed them at the last Cabinet meeting. But he had to assume that one of the blows hit him in the liver: on Friday night, the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, announced that he was withdrawing the fiscal chapter of the mega project. The provincial leaders celebrated it as a goal.
The fact is that Milei’s decisions meant constant headaches for the provincial leaders: in his first month rHe reduced the automatic transfers of the Nation, removed subsidies from them and sought, in his Omnibus bill, to add withholdings to production. A lethal combo.
They are already his disputes with Axel Kicillof and with the Riojan Ricardo Quintela are a classic, with whom he maintains a fierce confrontation. But he also opened a contest with the governors of Together for Change, many of whom, until now, were considered “dialoguists.” In his first days in the Casa Rosada, the President stood against the entire Interior. And he had to lose.
Down.
“Either they listen to us, or we ask our legislators to vote against the law,” protested Maximiliano Pullarothe radical governor of Santa Fe, after learning about the withholding scheme for industry and agricultural production that the Government wants to approve.
The ten governors of Together for Change organized themselves through various Zoom meetings to show their discontent with Milei’s decision. “During the campaign he promised that he was going to bring the withholdings to zero and now he wants to put them at 15 points. “Crazy,” protested one of the participants. The others nodded.
But the concern of provincial leaders is not only about the possibility of private companies losing markets. The anger had begun earlier, when Nación’s automatic transfers began to show a sharp cut.
A report from the Argentine Institute of Fiscal Analysis (IARAF), where the first half of January 2024 was compared with the same period in 2023, shows Milei’s chainsaw in action: The provinces suffered an adjustment of 7.5% of co-participation, on average. The most affected was Axel Kicillof with 11.1% cut. The least affected, Jorge Macri with a loss of 4%.
The adjustment that the governors encountered came with an additional problem. The Secretary of Transportation, Franco Mogetta, confirmed that the Compensation Fund will continue, but at the same value as in December 2023. With inflation through the roof, the Interior bus system will be in check in a few months.
To make matters worse, in the middle of the negotiation for the mega bill, while in Congress the ruling party was looking for votes to get closer to approval, the Minister of Economy added fuel to the fire of the governors: “We were outlining the provincial items that will be cut immediately, if any of the economic articles are rejected”Luis Caputo wrote on Twitter on Wednesday the 24th. “It is not a threat,” he later clarified, although the message was received, precisely, as intimidation.
The classic.
Kicillof became Milei’s favorite target. And he answers accordingly. That is why he joined the general strike of the CGT against the President and crossed it: “They are going to persecute us and they are going to drown us, but it is not that way”he warned.
The dispute between the president and the governor has many chapters. In December, Milei stated that he would establish a “Kicillof rate” to pay the debt of 16,000 million dollars that the Argentine State has with the British fund Buford Capital, for losing the trial for the stylization of YPF carried out while he was Minister of Economy.
Milei is so crossed with Kicillof that, a week ago, He did not realize that he was responding on Twitter to a fake account of the Buenos Aires governor. Then, to get out of trouble, he attacked the officer. The blooper had already gone viral.
Another Peronist who entered into a dispute with the President was Ricardo Quintela. The Riojan governor asked the provincial legislature to approve the creation of a quasi-currency. “The Government forced us to do this because of the speed, savagery and cruelty of the adjustment that was precipitated in 20 days. People have to collect their salaries and I don’t make ends meet,” he protested.
From Casa Rosada it didn’t take long for them to respond: “La Rioja has more public employees than private employees, it is going to have to make an adjustment,” Interior Minister Guillermo Francos told him. Milei had already criticized him in less political and more controversial terms: “If you spend money hiring Lali Espósito and don’t pay the police, it’s not our problem,” he said in an interview on Radio Miter.
Without governors to represent La Libertad Avanza, The President has no qualms about clashing with any provincial leader. But in a month of administration he has already crossed paths with almost everyone and in an elliptical shape he had to accept a defeat. The President’s is a dangerous strategy that, if it does not go well, could leave him too weakened.
Jaldo, the unsuccessful alliance.
The information fell like a political bomb: in the midst of the ruling party’s ruling to carry the Omnibus Law for Deputies there was a signature of Peronism. Agustín Fernández, the Tucumán legislator who until then, belonging to the Unión por la Patria bloc, had supported Milei’s project and with that he discovered the strategy of the governor to whom he responds, Osvaldo Jaldo.
On the afternoon of that Wednesday the 24th, the news was made official: three legislators from the northern province separated from the Justicialist bloc to vote in favor of the President. Jaldo had already negotiated with the Government for the validity of the Sugar Law and to remove the lemon industry from withholdings. “I am going to defend the interests of the province, no matter what it costs us,” said the provincial leader to argue his change of position. And while the PJ militancy made an angry claim to him online, he protested: “They are not going to give me the peronometer, my convictions are still intact.”
But the alliance would lose meaning hours later: with Caputo’s announcement to withdraw the fiscal chapter of the Omnibus Law to obtain the support of the governors. Jaldo’s negotiation was unsuccessful. And she left him out of Peronism.
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