The Senate will hold its preparatory session next week, in which the authorities of the Upper House will be ratified and the days and times of the ordinary sessions that start on March 1 will be set, in the midst of negotiations between the ruling party and the opposition about the formation of the 27 commissions that make up the body.
The preparatory session was officially convened by the Vice President of the Nation, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, for this Thursday, February 24, starting at noon.
The celebration of this session is a procedure that is contemplated in article 1 of the Regulations of the Chamber and that is carried out every year before the President of the Nation inaugurates the ordinary period of sessions.scheduled for March 1.
The official from Santiago, Claudia Abdala de Zamora, will continue as provisional president of the body, accompanied by the opposition from Santa Fe, Carolina Losada, as vice-president.
As first vice president, the missionary Maurice Closs will follow, for the Renovating Front of Concord; while the Buenos Aires Guadalupe Tagliaferri, from Together for Change, will remain with the second vice-presidency.
PvP Oaths
In Thursday’s session, the Together for Change interblock proposed that José María Torello, former adviser to former President Mauricio Macri, is sworn in as substitute for Esteban Bullrich from Buenos Aireswho at the end of last year decided to leave his bench since, as he stated, he cannot meet his obligations as a result of the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) that affects him.
With the oath of Torello, the opposition bench will have 33 members which is the number reached after the November legislative elections, with which it far exceeds the 25 of the 2017-2019 period.
After the results of those elections, the ruling party lost some places and the quorum; and will have 35 senators of its own for the next two years.
However, it will be able to reach its own majority thanks to the collaboration of its allies: Alberto Weretilneck, of Together We Are Río Negro; and Magdalena Solari, from the Front Renovador de la Concordia.
Del Valle Vega and Together for Change
In the last session, in which the Senate approved the new Personal Property Lawthe Frente de Todos had the collaboration of María Clara del Valle Vega, from La Rioja, who in 2019 entered the upper house as part of Together for Changealthough it was incorporated into the Federal Parliamentary interblock.
Since last year, the dialogue between Del Valle Vega and Together for Change has cooled down as a result of the electoral dispute in La Rioja, and the senator has approached the ruling party.
In fact, his presence on the premises enabled the discussion of the Personal Assets project since the Frente de Todos did not have its own quorum because one of its senators, Guillermo Andrada from Catamarca, had tested positive for coronavirus,
The dispute worsened when the president of the interblock, Alfredo Cornejo from Mendoza, went down to the venue to denounce that the session had started beyond the tolerance time allowed by the House Rules and, the next day, he was part of the judicial advance to declare the parliamentary meeting invalid.
The ruling party’s reaction was harsher: its bloc chief, José Mayans from Formosa, revealed the intention of the Frente de Todos to keep the presidency of the 27 commissions, as well as to appoint nine of the 17 members of each one.
The dispute over the formation of these legislative bodies actually began in December, with the formation of the Budget and Treasury Commission.
The Peronist from La Rioja, Ricardo Guerra, was appointed there and the Frente de Todos assured the place to nine of its members, out of 17 spaces. Together for Change kept seven and the rest went to Weretilneck, from Rio Negro, an ally of the ruling party.
That conformation generated some disputes between the blocks that were whited with the end of the summer break.
In the past week
Last week the leaders of the Front of All and Together for Change met again to try to bring positions closer together. Previously, Vice President Fernández de Kirchner gave the order to grant the opposition the places that correspond to itthereby removing the possibility that Peronism will keep everything.
However, the situation is still far from an agreement: Together for Change intends to retain the presidency of the eight commissions that it held until December and add two more. Likewise, it proposes that the ruling party and the opposition appoint eight members each and that the seventeenth be for a minority party.
In the Frente de Todos, on the contrary, they want to maintain the status quo that has been in place since 2019; and they demand that the opposition, in order to reach a rapprochement, must respect the parliamentary agreements reached before each session.
