At the beginning of the year, in his opening speech to ordinary sessions of Congress, the president Javier Milei promised “nine uninterrupted months of reforms that are going to redesign the institutional architecture of the New Argentina.” Although the libertarians were very far from addressing the “90 structural reform packages” that the President promised, the ruling party closed a positive first semester in the legislative arena, with great victories, such as labor reform, and blocked almost all opposition attempts to control the agenda.
The main political victory of La Libertad Avanza was the Labor Modernization Law 27,802sanctioned on February 27 after a marathon session in the Senate and later ratified in the Deputies. This standard, central axis of the government programsubstantially modified the rules of the labor market.
The new regulations made layoffs cheaper, introduced the hours bank and eased business burdens through the reduction of contributions and the creation of a job assistance fund financed by employers. In addition, the law eliminated the so-called ultraactivity of collective agreements, prioritizing agreements by company and allowing sectoral agreements to cease to be valid if they are not renewed. Another novelty was the creation of the figure of the independent worker outside the labor contract law, enabling forms of contracting based on specific services.
One of the most debated changes was the restriction on the right to strike in essential services such as health, education, transportation, energy and water, where a minimum service of 75% must now be guaranteed. For sectors considered transcendental, such as banks, mining, industry and electronic commerce, the floor is 50%.
On the other hand, the Government managed to advance with the new Juvenile Penal Regimewhich lowers the age of imputability from 16 to 14 years after a debate of almost two decades. He also approved the reform of the Glacier Lawwhich gave the provinces the power to establish their own criteria to determine which glaciers and periglacial environments will be preserved, a demand sustained by districts with mining activity. While the original law established general protection, the reform limited its protection to those bodies and geoforms that fulfill a “proven or relevant water function.”
Meanwhile, the law of Tax Innocencewhich aims to get “the dollars out of the mattress,” raised the threshold for simple evasion to 100 million pesos, and that for aggravated evasion to 1,000 million pesos. It also modified the statute of limitations for the crime, which decreased from 5 years to 3 years. This is the regulation that the Government will seek to reform again in the second half of the year to expand the universe of taxpayers who can join the regime.
In the last two months he accumulated a string of victories with the rectification of the trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Unionthe final sanction of the agreement with a group of holdouts (vulture funds), the half sanction the reform of the Cold Zones regime; of the Super RIGI, which seeks to promote investments in the “industries of the future” and the Hojarasca Law.
Furthermore, after last Thursday’s session, Milei’s government has accumulated more than one hundred judicial appointments to solve the profound problem of vacant courts, prosecutors and defense offices. According to the Minister of Justice, Juan Bautista Mahíques has another 300 sheets ready that will seek approval from the Senate before the end of the year.
However, despite its successful first semester, the ruling party accumulates a battery of projects with great political and economic impact for the second half of the year. Without a doubt, the most important for the Executive Branch will be the political reformwhose main point is the elimination of primary elections (PASO). Step that libertarians consider essential to ensure the reelection of the President.
This initiative does not end up gathering mass criticism among like-minded governors and allied blocs, something similar to what happens with the project of inviolability of private property, which contemplates mechanisms to expedite evictions, changes in the fire management law, the elimination of restrictions for the sale of land to foreigners and modifications to the expropriation law. His treatment was postponed for the fourth time and the ruling party is already working on draft number 16.
After the holidays, a battery of initiatives announced by Milei will also reach Congress to ensure financial and budget stability. To the extension of the law of Tax Innocence will add one reform of the Organic Charter of the Central Bank to reinforce its independence – prohibit financing of the Treasury – and a mechanism of “shutdown”, in the North American style to limit the State’s ability to spend above what was budgeted.
Source: Infobae
