The Senate began to debate the bill that supports the agreement reached by the Executive Power with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to refinance the debt for more than 44 billion dollars that was acquired by Argentina during the government of former president Mauricio Macri.
The session started at 14:09with the presence of the Vice President of the Nation and President of the Senate, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and 49 senators.
In order to achieve the necessary quorum, the representatives of the ruling party Frente de Todos, such as Together for Change, as well as smaller blocs.
Likewise, the authorization of the session on tables, which requires the positive votes of two thirds of those present, was facilitated by the opposition since the opinion obtained on Tuesday in the Budget and Treasury commission did not obtain the seven days since its publication, as established by the regulations.
The debate
The president of the Budget and Finance Commission of the Senate, the Riojan official Richard Waropened the debate in the upper house by assuring that they seek “to reach an agreement with the IMF that allows, as soon as possible, focus efforts on growing the economy and reducing inflation“.
In a 20-minute speech on behalf of the Frente de Todos, Guerra declared that “The loan (requested by the management of Cambiemos in 2018) has been far from what is statutory and legally permitted and close to political speculation”.
“The deal It should allow us, at the lowest social cost, to carry the heavy anchor of the unprecedented indebtedness in which the previous administration plunged usWar assured.
The project
According to the internal regulations of the Senate, the initiative that received on Tuesday unanimous favorable opinion in the Budget Committee It could only be brought to the venue next week, when the first due date of one of the payments to be made to the IMF is scheduled.
The opposition senators met for half an hour and resolved, after brief presentations by Martín Lousteau, Alfredo De Angeli, Humberto Schiavoni and Cornejo, to enable the debate on tables and agreed on the importance of Argentina “not going into default” with the International organization.
On Tuesday, the Budget and Treasury Commission of the Upper House chaired by the FdT senator for La Rioja, Ricardo Guerra, managed to sign a unanimous opinion of its 17 members in favor of the bill that was approved by Deputies last week.
Only two FdT senators, Juliana Di Tulio from Buenos Aires and Ana María Ianni from Santa Cruz, signed the dissenting text.
Senators and national deputies of the FdT held a meeting in the last hours with the economist and political scientist of Belgian origin Eric Toussaint, president of the Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debts.
During the meeting, which was held in the office of the ruling Neuquén senator Oscar Parrilli, Toussaint analyzed the main aspects of the Argentine government’s agreement with the IMF and recalled the enactment in Belgium of the law against the Vulture Funds.
The rule put a brake on the actions of these funds by preventing speculators from obtaining in that country more than what they had paid to repurchase debt, even having obtained a court ruling in their favor in a foreign court.
In addition to Parrilli, senators María Inés Pilatti Vergara, Guillermo Snopek and Matías Rodríguez and deputies Paula Penacca, Gabriela Estévez, Florencia Lampreabe and Itaí Hagman participated in the meeting.
The meeting took place hours after the Budget and Treasury Commission of the upper house gave a favorable opinion to the project that supports the agreement.
Among the senators who supported the ruling are the ruling party members Guerra, Edgardo Kueider (Entre Ríos), María Teresa González (Formosa), Antonio Rodas (Chaco), Maurice Closs (Misiones), Marcelo Lewandowski (Santa Fe), Carlos Linares (Chubut ) and Flavio Fama (Catamarca), as well as one of his allies, Alberto Weretilneck, from Together We Are Río Negro.
For JxC, Víctor Zimmermann from Chaco, Julio Martínez from Rioja, Lousteau and Guadalupe Tagliaferri from Buenos Aires, Ignacio Torres from Chubut and Juan Carlos Romero from Salta stamped their signatures.
The text approved by the senators contains only one article in which it is indicated: “Approve in accordance with the provisions of article 75 paragraph 7 of the National Constitution and in the terms of article 2 of law 27612 the operations of public credit contained in the Extended Facilities Program to be concluded between the Executive Branch and the IMF for the cancellation of the Stand By agreement entered into in 2018 and for budgetary support”.
