The chief of staff of the city of Buenos Aires, Felipe Miguel, assured this Thursday that the Buenos Aires government “will not give in” in the judicial dispute that it maintains with the Nation over the funds transferred for the administration of the police and confirmed that a extension to the Supreme Court of Justice “until May 11 to try to reach an agreement”.
“We had a new meeting with the Nation in which we agreed to request an extension together with the Supreme Court of the Nation for 15 calendar days or 11 business days, which would be a term until May 11,” he told the press, during the presentation of the comprehensive plan to transform and recover the coast of the City, headed by the head of the Buenos Aires Government, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, from the Saint Tropez Park.
In this context, Miguel said that “yesterday there was a meeting with officials of the Nation”, in which “there was no agreement”, since “both proposals were rejected” and that “an extension of 15 calendar days was requested”.
On the status of the negotiationsthe Buenos Aires official pointed out that, “until now, there were proposals presented by both parties that were rejected”, so “we will continue debating in the next instances”.
When outlining the position of the City, Miguel said: “What we are not going to do is give in in defending the interests of the city of Buenos Aires because the transfer that was made at the time was very rigorous. Therefore, we will continue to defend that.”
“We are in this process at the request of the Court and we are putting all the good faith to reach an agreement, but the guide is always to defend the rights of the citizens of Buenos Aires and defend the resources that are necessary to guarantee security in the City, which was the jurisdiction that was transferred,” he added.
The disputed measure
The representatives of the national government and the City of Buenos Aires agreed last Wednesday to request an extension of 15 days from the Supreme Court of Justice to continue negotiating for the funds for the transfer of the Federal Police to the Buenos Aires orbit carried out by the macrismo.
Faced with the impossibility of reaching a definitive agreement and facing the expiration of the deadline imposed by the highest court for next April 26, the parties agreed to request an extension of the deadlines to continue debating.
During the last three meetings offers and counteroffers were madebut last week a “stalemate” had been reached that left the situation “far” from an agreement.
The highest court understands in the lawsuit for unconstitutionality filed by the City against the law that defined that the funds contemplated by the transfer of Security to the City do not correspond to co-participation funds.
The administration of Mauricio Macri had increased -by decree- the co-participation funds assigned to the City, which reached 3.75% and attributed that rise to the transfer of the police to the Buenos Aires orbit.
In 2020, during the harshest stage of the coronavirus pandemic, President Alberto Fernández decided to redirect these funds to the province of Buenos Aires and, in December of that year, Congress passed the law that confirmed that the funds would not be they could derive from co-participation and the amounts had to be negotiated between the parties.
