Dialogue finished. Without any type of response from the Government to the claims of recent weeks, the governors of Together for Change made the decision to Do not resume conversations with the Casa Rosada unless President Javier Milei receives themwith a fiscal and productive agenda in hand.
A meeting in that sense does not seem viable, at least for now, especially taking into account the battery of grievances towards the provinces that the President dealt with when the Omnibus Law was frustrated in Congress. Since then, The Government stopped answering the phone to the provinces and moved forward with decisions that clearly affected its resources.
The main ones had to do with the removal of transportation from the Compensation Fund and the refusal to subsidize the Teacher Incentive Fund (Fonid)which arose after La Rosada removed the fiscal package from the controversial law that she sent to Congress, ruling out changes regarding Profits and especially the increase in withholdings from the countryside that were questioned by the provinces with greater productive weight.
“They cut off the funds, but they never had a serious discussion about fiscal matters. They were decisions made overnight, untimely. Suddenly they said: there is no more money for transportation or for Fonid. It was a revenge issue and they put all the governors in the same bag, especially those from Together for Change, who were the ones who had supported them with the Omnibus Law,” is the comment that arises from the opposition called ally/dialogue, that In the general vote he supported the official initiative.
But on the night of Tuesday the 6th when Milei decided to lower the entire package due to lack of consensus in the articles that were voted on, criticism came from all sides and no one got away. For these hoursWhat the governors of Together for Change hope is to sit down and discuss a fiscal pact with the President “seriously”, which defines which taxes are going to be shared and which are not. None of those that increased, they argue, are co-participants.
Beyond the position of the 10 Cambiomita governors, specifically those of the PRO and radicalism, the discontent with the Government also involves the leaders of Peronist provinces, mainly Córdoba, with Martin Llaryorathe governor whom Milei openly crossed last week and who in an interview this Sunday with Clarion He sent a message to the President by declaring that “I don’t think any good person wants to merge the provinces and municipalities”.
The other governor of a province with productive weight and in terms of registry is Santa Fe. Maximiliano Pullaro. In recent days it has once again been very clear about how the removal of the transportation subsidy affects the provinces. “If they gave us what we contribute, transportation in Santa Fe would cost 0 pesos,” said the leader of the Radical Civic Union.
The governors also affirm that there is a strong inaction of the Government regarding the discussion of the fiscal package announced by Minister Caputo. There is still no certainty or dates where it would be discussed in Congress. They also believe that The agreements they made with Minister Francos were not fulfilled.. Franco continues with the idea that it is better for him to lean on Peronism.
In that sense, it prepares a meeting between the JxC governors for next week. “Sooner or later the President has to receive us. We mostly support the DNU and the Key Ómnibus. We do not understand the strategy of equalizing ourselves with Kirchnerism when we have just won in many provinces against the Peronism that governed for decades,” he maintains in off another representative.
The loaded judicial front with the provinces
In the midst of these constant short circuits between the provinces and the Executive, a panorama of judicialization in the medium term appears that worries the Government. Two provinces have already gone to court for claims linked to the Compensation Fund and the Fonid: this is the case of Río Negro, of the renovator Gerardo Weretilneckand that of Chubut, of the young leader of the PRO, Ignacio Torres. The province of Buenos Aires has also already announced that it will claim educational funds through administrative channels.
However, since the end of Alberto Fernández’s mandate, there have been presentations for the reduction of Profits and for changes in VAT. Were Mendoza and Corrientesboth administered by Together for Change, which decided last November to file a lawsuit in the Supreme Court of Justice, which has yet to resolve it.
There is another unresolved historical front on the part of the Executive that upsets the spirits of the provinces of Together for Change, especially. Although there was a meeting the first week of January, with the head of the Buenos Aires Government Jorge Macri and Luis Caputo as main interlocutors, There are no signs that the millionaire debt that Kirchnerism contracted with the city of Buenos Aires will be paid. by taking away co-participation funds that the Supreme Court ordered to be returned. To date, it is $350,000 million that should be transferred to the Buenos Aires coffers.
Luis Caputo and Jorge Macri, together at the January meeting in which they debated co-participation.The path of all these types of lawsuits seems to inevitably end in the Supreme Court. “When you as a Nation fail to pay for a program that is by law, or affect resources that are co-shareable such as VAT and Profits, the provinces are automatically obliged to prosecute,” is the comment that emerged from one province in recent days in regarding how to act in the face of conflicts that arise with the Government.
Along these lines, different sources consulted assure that If the Government does not open itself to a negotiation on the most sensitive points in question, the provinces will go en masse to court.as has already begun to happen, and the cases, sooner or later, will reach the fourth floor of the Talcahuano courts, where the Supreme Court operates.
Taking into account that the Court’s year formally begins in March, despite the fact that the judicial fair concluded in January, in the provinces They find it difficult for the highest court to express itself on any point that could be seen as an alteration to the governability of a president who took office just over two months ago. Until April, at least, it seems difficult to think of a powerful decision from Justice, for example, in the lawsuit that reached the court orbit, which is the one presented by Mendoza and Corrientes.
