Argentina’s Javier Milei Prepares a ‘Shock Package’ of Legislation for His Very First Day: ‘It’s a New Social Contract’
New Argentine President intends to start his term kicking down the door on the very first day.
While ‘chainsaw’ Milei has somewhat softened his rhetoric and changed a few names on his team, apparently he intends to enact meaningful reforms and repeal a voluminous body of legislation in his very first act after the inauguration on December 10.
Javier Milei plans to present to an extraordinary session of Congress a highly ambitious ‘omnibus law’ project to start off his government.
Besides the traditional ‘ministry law’ – that establishes the organizational chart of each new administration – he is preparing a ‘shock package’: deregulation of economic laws, simplification of the tax system, labor modifications, and the privatization of state companies.
La Nacion reported:
“As LA NACION learned from high-ranking sources at La Libertad Avanza, in recent days the idea was added to the menu to include a ‘political reform’ that contemplates, among other points, the suppression of the [primaries law] PASO, in addition to modifications linked to party financing. This chapter was being written at this time, with one week left until the inauguration.
‘It is a living document, in which things constantly come and go. But without a doubt what is proposed is not only to change the organizational chart, it is a new social contract’, highlighted a close collaborator of Milei.”
He only has 38 deputies and seven senators so it’s unclear how he will navigate the legislative.
“In the libertarian environment they cling to the reading of the ‘social mandate’ left by the runoff and argue: ‘They voted for Javier to do this’. The libertarian leadership assures that all the reforms will be integrated into a single text that will be sent ‘on day one’. But others in the space began to warn behind closed doors that Milei should polish the legislative strategy and dose the reforms over time.”
His shock package entails a considerable shrinking of the state structure, reducing the current 18 ministries to eight or nine portfolios.
“The economic part of the project would contemplate strong deregulation in different sectors, such as mining and oil, in addition to an infrastructure chapter to ‘generate legal security for large investments’. ‘There are 2,000 laws that regulate economic activity and many that must be eliminated to promote investment’, said a leading libertarian contributor. The future chancellor, Diana Mondino, said this week in statements to CNN Radio: ‘I don’t know how many (laws) are going to be repealed. But there are many, many, many’.”
The ‘money drain’ public companies to be converted into public limited companies via direct privatization, while others share ownership could be transferred to employees.
When it comes to taxes, libertarians talk about ‘tax simplification’, a.k.a. tax cuts.
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