Following the controversy generated by the attempt to increase salaries to $9 million, the senators decided to back down on the measure and Vice President Victoria Villarruel called a special session to discuss it in the Upper House to move forward. the repeal of the law on hiring and defining a system that unifies the salary scheme of the three branches of the State.
Criticisms of Javier Miley against the senators, calling them “treason to the homeland”“swindlers” provoked fury in Congress and led the presidents of the different blocs to evaluate the possibility of moving forward with the project promoted by Kirchnerism that proposes a salary scheme so that no one in the state structure earns more than the President.
For this reason, the vice president called for a special session this Thursday at 10 a.m. to deal “head-on and publicly” with the issue of legislators’ allowances. “This way we will put an end to the overreactions that plague Argentine politics in all areas and that have us Argentines worried,” the vice president concluded in a message that she spread through social networks.
The agenda is simple and includes two projects. One is promoted by the president of the Union for the Homeland bloc, José Mayans, which promotes the unification of salaries for the three branches of government. The other proposal seeks to repeal the resolution approved in April that reestablished the mechanism of connection with the parity of legislative employees.
As President of the Senate, I called a special session on Thursday at 10 o’clock so that the senators could debate the increase in their salaries. Face to face and publicly. By name and by stating their positions. This way we will put an end to the overacting that parasitizes politics… pic.twitter.com/7aZlwgS6l0
— Victoria Villarruel (@VickyVillarruel) August 20, 2024
The truth is that the call for this session was announced after Senators have again backtracked on a significant pay raise, bringing their salaries to around $9 million starting this month, leaving them with deductions at $7.8 million. The presidents of the Senate blocs agreed to waive the “hook” that allowed them to access the salary increase granted to legislative employees.
The scandal broke out on Monday when a 6.5% increase in two tranches for Congress employees was confirmed, which was transferred to their allowances by a law approved by the senators. With this increase, the salaries of the senators were to go from $1.9 million at the beginning of the year to $9.8 million, which represents a five-fold increase in less than 9 months.
Following Milei’s criticism, senators again reject increases
However, this Tuesday, the presidents of The blocks agreed to give up the increasebut they also anticipated that they will no longer be tied to the increase in the legislative ones. The decision was known after Javier Miley lashed out at the senators. Even before the senators backed off the increase, the President called them “swindlers.”
This is not the first time that senators have had to back down on an increase. They had to do so in May when, as a result of what was approved in the chamber, they agreed to the 9% increase that the legislative unions had agreed to and which at that time brought the allowances to $8 million.
José Mayans, head of the Union for the Homeland bloc. Photo: Federico López Claro.
Kirchnerism wants to set a cap on the salaries of the three branches of government
Faced with this situation, the Union for the Homeland bloc sought to revive a bill to establish a cap on the salaries of the three branches of government. The initiative aims to The salaries received by judges, senators, deputies, among others, do not exceed the figure equivalent to twenty Minimum, Vital and Mobile Salaries.
The opposition has focused on the fact that the tension over allowances is once again occurring at a key moment for the Government. The previous time was when the Ley Bases was being discussed and now when it is beginning to deal with the nominations of Ariel Lijo and Manuel García-Mansilla for the Supreme Court of Justice. But also when the Casa Rosada is keeping the discussion on the update of the retirement mobility formula blocked.
The senators’ complaint is that There are officials who are in charge of boards of directors and earn higher sumsThere were even legislators who, upset by the President’s statements, asked to be paid the same as Customs or AFIP workers.
Meanwhile, Villarruel called for a session on Thursday while trying to bring the positions of the blocs closer together to avoid the senators being divided “between good and bad.” However, they made it clear that the resolution that was approved in April in the chamber was passed unanimously.
In that session, the senators approved by a show of hands and without debate, a novel system of updating the allowances that brought the salaries to $7.2 million gross, when they had been earning a net of $1.9 million. The mechanism set the salary of the legislators at 2,500 modules, which is the one used to define the salaries of the employees. But to that amount must be added 1,000 extra modules for representation expenses and another 500 for uprooting.
Victoria Villarruel and Bartolome Abdala with Juliana Di Tullio, Ezequiel Atauche, Jose Mayans and Carmen Alvarez Rivero. Photo: Federico Lopez Claro.
On this occasion, the senators refused to give up the increase and, in response to the request from the Chamber of Deputies to grant the increase to employees Martín Menem and Villarruel, they decided to move forward with the signing of the resolution.
Martín Menem resists and assures that he will not increase the allowances of the deputies
In this context, Menem confirmed that the increase does not apply to deputies because they are not under the APL salary-linking system. This will surely have an impact on deputies, who had already expressed their discontent over the delay in their allowances in relation to senators.
Under pressure from legislators, the Riojan had to agree to an increase in allowances in June, although he did not equate them with those of the Senate. He granted increases in three stages, 40%, then 14% and finally an increase of 8%.
Martín Menem refuses to increase the allowances of deputies. Photo: Luciano Thieberger.
In this way, the salaries of the deputies from the first stage of the increase reached 2.6 million pesos per month in hand after the corresponding deductions. While at present, The diets of the deputies are located at $ 3,497,958 to which is added $ 625 thousand in the concept of uprooting.
