Lawmakers meet to debate Argentina's President Javier Milei's economic reform bill, known as the "omnibus bill", at the National Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina June 12 2024. REUTERS/Mariana Nedelcu
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) -Argentina's Senate kicked off debate of a sprawling bill on Wednesday that is key to new libertarian President Javier Milei's economic reform plans, even as protesters set fires and clashed with police against in the streets outside Congress.
The upper house, which is divided almost down the middle over the bill, is set for a marathon debate. The bill passed the lower house of deputies in April at the second time of asking and with many changes.
Milei's government, which only has a small minority in both chambers, has been bargaining to win over allies. It knows the bill will be modified, but is hoping to at least get general approval for it. Outright rejection would be a major blow.
Local legislators and media outlets estimated that senators were evenly split. The bill needs 37 votes from the 72 total legislators in the chamber to get a majority.
"It is a very even vote: it's 36 and 36," Guadalupe Tagliaferri, a conservative lawmaker from the government-allied Together for Change, told reporters. She added the vote could come down to the vice president, who presides over the Senate, to break the tie.
The main left-leaning Peronist opposition bloc, closely allied to the unions, is likely to vote down the so-called "bases" bill and a separate fiscal package. The main bill includes plans for privatizing public firms, granting special powers to the president and spurring investment.
"Argentine people's lives are at play. We've drank this poison several times: to have zero inflation with zero economic activity," protester and social leader Luis D'Elia said as thousands protested the planned reforms.
"This poison has failed several times in Argentina and we won't allow this to carry on."
Images from the streets of Buenos Aires showed a car set on fire, protesters throwing rocks and bottles, and police with riot gear, using gas, water hoses and rubber bullets.
'NEST OF RATS'
Milei, a brash economist and former pundit who has clashed with lawmakers and regularly called Congress a "nest of rats," has tied a lot to the bill. His government says it is key to undoing a major economic crisis that it inherited.
"We are going to change Argentina. We'll make a liberal Argentina," Milei said on Wednesday, adding that if his reforms didn't get through Congress now he'd try again in 2025.
A government official speaking on condition of anonymity said that they expected the bill to get general approval in the Senate, but would be "more altered than we would like". If it is approved with edits it will go back to the lower house.
"If the Bases law is passed, it accelerates the growth process, mainly by getting investment into the country. If it is not passed, we keeping going, though perhaps more slowly," the person said.
Argentina has annual inflation near 300%, myriad capital controls that stymie business and trade, depleted foreign currency reserves and a high debt load that needs servicing. The economy is also in recession and poverty is rising.
The Senate debate is expected to continue late on Wednesday, with voting potentially set to take place in the evening.
"They are going to have to buy popcorn," La Libertad Avanza Senator Francisco Paoltroni told local channel C5N. "It is going to be a long night of trying to break the deadlock."
(Reporting by by Nicolás Misculin; Editing by Adam Jourdan, Rod Nickel and Sandra Maler)
