The Chamber of Deputies finished forming its 46 commissions and the ruling party secured the presidency of the key management bodies, while the opposition will head 22 of those working groups, as part of the agreements established by the two majority forces as a result of the parity that exists between both spaces.
Three months after the start of the regular session period, the Lower House managed to form all the commissions of the body, where the FdT was left with the presidency of 22 commissions and Together for Change (JxC) with those of another 22, in so much so that the remaining two were one for the Federal Interbloc and the other for the United Provinces.
This distribution reflects the balance that exists between the FdT block, led by Germán Martínez, (118 deputies), and JxC (116 deputies), as a consequence of the parity in the result of the 2021 legislative elections.
After the formation of the commissionsthe lower house will have to focus on this scenario of balance of forces to debate key issues such as the reform of the Council of the Judiciary, the Single Ballot, the reform of the Rent Law, Buy Argentino and the bill that creates a National Fund for the Cancellation of the Debt with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with money fled abroad, among other issues.
The first commissions that were formed were, in December 2021, the Budget and Treasury, which was in charge of Carlos Heller (FdT), where the debate on the 2022 Budget passed -which was not finally approved-. and then that of Finance, chaired by Alicia Aparicio (FdT), both of which were important in the discussion of the agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last March.
Meanwhile, in recent weeks the ruling party and the opposition sealed the agreement with the constitution of all the permanent commissions that make up the body to advance, finally, in the debate of the pending projects.
In this way, the ruling party he remained with the presidency of the most important ones such as those of General Legislation (Cecilia Moreau), Constitutional Affairs (Hernán Pérez Araujo), Energy and Fuels (Santiago Igon), Political Judgment (Carolina Gaillard) and Justice (Rodolfo Tailhade).
The ruling party also retained the presidencies of the Human Rights commissions, led by Hugo Yasky, and the Women and Diversity Commission, with Mónica Macha, who will continue to lead that body.
For its part, JxC It will lead some relevant commissions such as those of Agriculture and Livestock, where the radical from Formosa Ricardo Buryaile was elected; the one on Criminal Legislation, which was left to the PRO deputy María Luján Rey and the one on Analysis and Follow-up of Tax Regulations, which will be headed by Martín Tetaz, from Evolución Radical.
In the opposition alliance, meanwhile, the presidencies were distributed according to the weight of each party in the Chamber: 12 for the PRO, seven for UCR, two for Radical Evolution and one for the Civic Coalition.
As for the internal makeup of these bodies, there were 30 commissions with the same number of members for the FdT and JxC, while the ruling party has only 12 more members and the opposition has four.
Secondly, there are only five commissions where the ruling party secured its own majoritywithout the need for any allied bloc: General Legislation, Impeachment, Petitions, Powers of Attorney and Regulations, Elderly Persons and Freedom of Expression.
The political landscape
This scenario of parity will force the main political forces to agree on the projects so that they can reach the venue or to unify positions with other blocks, as is the case between the FdT and the United Provinces interblock or the case of JxC for the Single Ballot with the Federal Interblock.
The Federal Interbloc – made up of 8 deputies and led by deputy Alejandro “Topo” Rodríguez – has a presence in 34 commissions, while that of the United Provinces, headed by the legislator of Together We Are Río Negro Luis Di Giácomo and with 4 legislators, participates of 13 of those bodies of work.
On the other hand, Freedom Advances, by José Luis Espert and Carolina Píparointegrates 4 commissions, while the MPN only integrates the Energy and Fuel and SER only one of those working bodies.
The Left Front -made up of 4 deputies- has a presence in 9 commissions: Nicolás del Caño (PTS) in Social Security and Communications and Information Technology; Myriam Bregman (PTS) in Women and Diversity and Consumer Advocacy; Alejandro Vilca (PTS) in Human Rights and Guarantees and Cooperative Affairs and Romina del Plá (PO) in Education, Family and Childhood, and Housing and Urban Planning.
Meanwhile, the space of Javier Milei and Victoria Villarroel, Freedom Advancesis the only political force that decided not to integrate any of the commissions and, in fact, they maintain a very low participation in parliamentary debates since they took office on December 10.
