Casa Rosada was the setting where it was discussed this afternoon how to travel what remains until the 25 of Maydate of appointment in Córdoba that President Javier Milei proposed to the governors in the Legislative Assembly last Friday. As a first measure, it was decided summon provincial leaders for this friday. The intention of the ruling party is to begin discussing agreements that guarantee a successful next step of the “Bases Law” in Congress, the condition that Milei set for the governors to sign the call May Pact.
The meeting of the so-called “small table” was headed by the Chief of Staff, Nicolás Posse, and the ministers Guillermo Francos (Interior) and Luis Caputo (Economy). The three are responsible for moving forward the ten-point proposal that the libertarian administration wants the governors to sign. Or most of them.
The press office of the Presidency of the Nation confirmed after 7:30 p.m. today, through a statement on the networks, Friday’s call for leaders.
Prior to Friday’s summit, the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, will meet this Wednesday with his provincial peers. At the meeting the Government will discuss the possibility of reach a pre-agreement on “fiscal relief” with the provinces. Thus the path would begin to be paved to receive the governors, two days later.
From the Government they say that an “increase in withholdings” is not contemplated, a chapter resisted by the Córdoba-Santa Fe-Buenos Aires productive axis. President Milei could give some definition on this this Tuesday when he visits Expoagro in San Nicolás.
What the governors say
The libertarian Government wants to reach the May Pact without surprises and having approved the Bases Law (or something similar) in Congress. For now, More than a dozen governors anticipated their presence in Córdoba for 25M, without this implying for now a blind signing of the pact. It is also unclear how many governors will attend Friday’s call.
Maximiliano Pullaro, the radical governor of Santa Fe, is among those who are not willing to sign blank. This Monday he anticipated to the Government the position that his deputies will have: “The deputies of the province of Santa Fe mostly supported the Bases Law in general terms. There were some issues to which we opposed and, if they return with the same tenor, we will do it again. We are going to defend the productive system of the province of Santa Fe, we are going to defend the countryside and we are going to defend the industry. In this sense, we are against increasing or placing new withholdings on the countryside and industry because we believe that this hits sectors that provide jobs and generate economic growth,” said Pullaro.
That agenda, finally, is not very different from that of Martín Llaryora. The governor of Córdoba already on Friday at the end of the Legislative Assembly asked “a productive plan” to the national Government and “expand the discussion of the May Pact to the productive and labor sectors.”
Francos once again denied that the Executive “extorts” the provinces by promising “fiscal relief” in exchange for support for the new treatment of the Bases Law.
“It is not extortionate; It is a government without governors and with a minority in Parliament «who uses his public speech to convince the rest of the forces,» said Minister Francos.
“We must go with the intention of seeking points of agreement and coincidence,” said the minister about the future dialogue with the governors.
Francos left the Executive’s roadmap: «On the path of the May Pact we have to see the Bases Law and the fiscal agreement approved so that the provinces have the necessary resources to be able to administer their provinces.»
For now, the ten governors of Together for Change, with their nuances and differences, are willing to dialogue. The Peronists Jalil (Catarmarca) and Jaldo (Tucumán) are in the dialoguist ranks, very far from their PJ peers. “Milei must stop extorting the governors,” Axel Kicillof said this Monday, when opening the sessions of the Buenos Aires legislature. “Just start if we don’t arrive,” he said about the invitation to sign the Pact.
The position of Patagonia
The map of the Patagonia remains complex to understand for Milei. This Thursday the leaders will meet in Puerto Madryn to continue an agenda specific to the region. And autonomous from the national government. Last week Alfredo Weretilneck invited President Milei. Apparently, Francos will attend on his behalf.
The Patagonian governors are going to announce the creation of a Patagonian Development Agency, focused on the exploitation and use of resources, especially those related to hydrocarbons, energy, fishing and mining, among others.
The Patagonian group brings together Nacho Torres (Chubut) who is from the PRO, Rolando Figueroa (Neuquén), Alberto Weretilneck (Río Negro), Claudio Vidal (Santa Cruz), from provincial parties; to the opposition Peronist Sergio Ziliotto (La Pampa) and Gustavo Melella (Tierra del Fuego), aligned in Unión por la Patria.
The Patagonians want the agency begins to intervene on behalf of the interests of the region. None of them, for now, rejected the presidential invitation for 25M. But they anticipated that They reject the imposition of “a centralist agenda.”